Project Description: 

Cardiac arrest occurs when the heart’s electrical system malfunctions, resulting in poor blood flow, and within minutes, brain damage. Current methods of treating cardiac arrest include Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), automated external compression devices, and internal cardiac massage. Only 1 in 8 In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (IHCA) patients who receive CPR survive. CPR is fatiguing to providers, ineffective in restoring blood flow to the brain, and traumatic to patients. Automated devices designed to replace manual CPR reduce the number of hospital staff needed to attempt resuscitation, but experience the same set of problems as manual CPR and have the same low rate of survival to discharge. One effective treatment for IHCA is open cardiac massage, a procedure that delivers localized compressions to the heart and thus provides adequate perfusion to the body. Unfortunately, open cardiac massage requires a thoracotomy, which is a dangerous and highly morbid procedure. Based on the current methods discussed, there is a need for an efficient, effective, and minimally invasive treatment for in-hospital cardiac arrest. With the help of our sponsor, Dr. Prewitt, we designed a solution to solve this problem. The Intrapericardial Cardiac Compression Device (ICCD) meets the demonstrated user needs of increased perfusion to the brain and cyclical cardiac compressions by employing a balloon-catheter system that delivers compressions directly on the heart. These compressions are accomplished by accessing the pericardial space and deploying a balloon to generate ventricular pressure. Through verification testing on porcine hearts and a human cadaver, we found that the ICCD can generate over 90 mmHg ventricular pressure in the heart, the amount necessary for proper blood flow. Our device has strong potential in saving lives and improving blood flow to the brain during cardiac arrest.