Surgery MB151
Hersehy Medical Center
Tel: 717-531-7068
Fax: 717-531-4464
Email: asnyder@psu.edu
Website: Institute
for Biomedical Engineering at HMC
Penn State has, for over 25 years, been a world leader in development of artificial hearts and ventricular assist devices. I have been involved in this effort for over 20 years. My principal work has been in development of control systems that permit these devices to vary their output according to the body's needs. Presently, we are completing the development of a total artificial heart and ventricular assist device that require no interruption of the patient's skin to operate. Projects aimed at development of new devices include studies of scaling of blood pumps to smaller sizes, and development of a next-generation ventricular assist device. These programs are funded by the National Institutes of Health.
My other line of research involves development of advanced surgical tools, particularly for minimally invasive surgery. Presently, surgeons performing minimally invasive procedures have limited dexterity and a highly compromised sense of touch. In microsurgery, operations on structures a few millimeters or less in scale, surgeons work at the limits of human movement ability and have limited feel due to the mismatch between human-scale forces and the forces involved in the manipulation of tiny structures. Along with faculty in the department of Mechanical Engineering, I am working to develop advanced end-effectors that would provide improved dexterity and useful force feedback. These programs are presently funded internally and through gift funds.
Snyder AJ, Rosenberg G, Pierce WS: Non-invasive control of cardiac output for alternately ejecting dual pusherplate pumps. Artificial Organs 16(2): 189-194, 1992.
Snyder, AJ, Rosenberg, G., Weiss, W., Pierce, W.S., Pae, W.E., Prophet, G.A., Daily, W., Kawaguchi, 0., Nazarian, R.A., Ford, S.K. and Marlotte J.A.: Completely Implantable Total Artificial Heart and Heart Assist Systems: Initial In Vivo Testing. In, Artificial Heart 4. Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Artificial Heart and Assist Devices. Ed., T. Akutsu, H. Koyanagi. Springer-Verlag, Tokyo, 1993, pg. 117-125.
Rosenberg, G., Snyder, A.J., Weiss, W.J., Sapirstein, J.S. and Pierce, W.S.: In Vivo Testing of a Clinical-Size Totally Implantable Artificial Heart. Assisted Circulation 4. Ed., Felix Unger, M.D., Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidleberg, New York, pp. 235-248, 1995.
Weiss, W.J., Rosenberg, G., Snyder, AJ, Donachy, J.H., Felder, G., Sapirstein, J.S., Pae, W.E. and Pierce, W.S.: Progress Toward a Completely Implantable Left Ventricular Assist Device at The Pennsylvania State University. Assisted Circulation 4. Ed., Felix Unger, M.D., Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidleberg, New York, pp. 124-137, 1995.
Abe Y, Chinzel T, Mabuchi K, Snyder AJ, et al. Physiologic Control of a Total Artificial Heart: Conductance (1/R) and arterial pressure based control. J Appl Physiol 84(3) 868-876, 1998.