The development of Mechanical Circulatory Support Systems has been funded for more than 25 years by the NHLBI. These devices will be powered by electricity, in part, because electric power can be transmitted through intact skin using a transcutaneous energy transmission system, or TETS. As the animal experiments have progressed, there have arisen increasingly severe problems with adverse tissue response in the skin covering the subcutaneous TETS coil. An experiment is proposed to test the hypothesis that the tissue necrosis is caused by a combination of compromised skin perfusion and local heating associated with the TETS coils. An alternate coil configuration will be evaluated in animal experiments in which a well per fused muscle will be interposed between the TETS coils providing a convective transport mechanism by which heat can be carried away from the site. The experiments are to be carried out at one of the laboratories which has observed the problem with a conventional coil configuration. Link Research has developed a TETS which has demonstrated excellent power transmission efficiency with the anticipated intercoil spacing. Development of a commercial TETS which offers improved tissue viability the goal of the company.
