In vitro investigation of a new thrombus aspiration and autologous blood reinfusion system

PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of a new venous-thrombus aspiration and autologous blood (auto-blood) reinfusion system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We constructed the venous model from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) tubes and three-way unions using a fresh clot of chicken blood as the venous thrombus. Eight French and 12F aspiration catheters were used to aspirate the thrombus in the right–pulmonary-artery model, 8 French and 14F aspiration catheters were used in the inferior–vena cava model, and 8 French and 10F aspiration catheters were used in the left–iliofemoral-vein model. A thrombus filtration and auto-blood reinfusion bottle was used to filter the thrombus and re-infuse auto-blood. We evaluated the thrombus aspiration capability of each catheter by comparing pre-aspirated with the post-aspirated thrombus volume, and we evaluated the difference in aspiration capability between the two catheters in each model by comparing their thrombus aspiration rates. We used Student's t-test for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Differences between pre-aspirated and post-aspirated thrombus volumes for each catheter were insignificant, as were those between the thrombus aspiration rates of the two catheters in each venous model. Using the thrombus aspiration and auto-blood reinfusion system, each aspiration catheter could fluently aspirate the thrombus out of the venous model. CONCLUSION: In this study, we designed a new venous-thrombus aspiration system. This system could be used to aspirate acute venous thrombi and re-infuse autologous blood.