Acute cardiac failure challenges clinical teams with timelines measured in minutes rather than days. When postoperative shock or decompensation follows surgery, the question often becomes how to stabilize perfusion long enough to decide the next step: recovery, escalation, or transition to transplant. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, clinicians evaluated membrane oxygenators, roller pumps, and early centrifugal systems, each with distinct limitations in blood damage and mechanical wear. Against that backdrop, magnetic levitation entered the discussion as an engineering approach to decouple moving parts from bearings and manage shear more predictably.
Cardiac centers reported a persistent “bridge-to-decision” gap for patients in postcardiotomy shock, right-ventricular failure after left-sided surgery, and refractory cardiogenic shock. Teams needed systems that could be primed quickly, deliver precise flows, and tolerate variable anticoagulation strategies while clinicians evaluated recovery potential. Centrifugal pumps, already familiar in perfusion, presented an appealing platform because they could generate flow with fewer moving interfaces than roller systems. Magnetic levitation added the prospect of bearingless operation, stable hydrodynamics across a range of speeds, and lower friction, all of which are relevant to hemocompatibility and durability during hours to weeks of support.
Kurt A. Dasse, Ph.D., who started in physiology and later moved through academic and industry roles in circulatory support, co-founded Levitronix’s medical business in the early 2000s as part of a U.S.–Swiss structure. The Swiss team focused on motor and controller architectures; the U.S. organization concentrated on clinical translation, regulatory planning, and hospital adoption. The division of labor mirrored the company’s technical thesis: advance a bearingless, magnetically levitated centrifugal pump and package it with disposables and controllers for use in operating rooms, ICUs, and cardiothoracic step-down units.
The bearingless rotor eliminated a primary wear interface and enabled clearances that could be tuned to reduce regions of high shear and stagnation. In pump development, those parameters influence hemolysis, platelet activation, and protein adsorption. By minimizing contact surfaces, engineers aimed to limit heat generation and particulate wear, both of which complicate long-duration extracorporeal runs.
The CentriMag program targeted multiple short-term scenarios: temporary left- or right-ventricular assist (LVAD/RVAD) support, biventricular configurations, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) circuits, in which a stable pump can simplify flow control. Investigational device studies evaluated setup times, anticoagulation practices, and adverse event profiles across settings ranging from postoperative rescue to shock of nonischemic origin. As hospitals gained experience, adoption patterns emerged: some centers placed CentriMag primarily as an RVAD after LVAD implantation; others used it in ECMO circuits for postcardiotomy failure; still others operated it as a bridge while transplant candidacy or recovery potential became clear. The program’s design emphasizes modularity, with pump heads as single-use disposables coupled to reusable motors and controllers, aligning with procurement and infection-control practices in tertiary centers.
The adult system’s architecture informed pediatrics, but flows, priming volumes, and cannulation strategies required dedicated designs. PediMag and PediVAS are intended for small patients and the neonatal-to-infant flow range, where oversizing a pump risks hemolysis or suction events. The disposables scaled internal geometry to match pediatric hemodynamics, while training curricula addressed cannula selection, anticoagulation targets, and alarm management in low-flow circuits. Complication profiles in early adopters focused on thrombus surveillance, hemolysis markers, and neurologic monitoring; program materials emphasized center training and checklists to confirm cannula position and adjust pump speed during weaning trials. Pediatric sites reported that the ability to maintain stable low flows without bearing contact aligned with goals to limit blood trauma over days to weeks of support.
In August 2011, Thoratec acquired Levitronix’s medical business, including CentriMag and PediMag, in a significant transaction with a notable financial agreement at the time. For Thoratec, the acquisition extended its portfolio, which already included the HeartMate LVAD line; short-term centrifugal support complemented durable implantable systems by addressing perioperative rescue and temporary stabilization. For the Levitronix team, integration provided manufacturing scale, service networks, and clinical trial infrastructure. Knowledge transfer ran in both directions: centrifugal pump know-how and MagLev motor control were incorporated into subsequent platform design, including elements that informed the development of HeartMate 3’s bearing-free architecture. The transaction also formalized field support and post-market surveillance processes under a larger device manufacturer’s quality system.
As CentriMag moved from bench to bedside, hospitals installed pumps across operating rooms, ICUs, and emergency departments that could introduce electromagnetic interference from other equipment. Controller firmware and cabling were iteratively refined to maintain rotor stability and alarm integrity under varying electrical conditions. These updates were documented through standard design change controls and site communications, with attention to grounding, cable routing, and shielding in existing hospital infrastructure.
Throughout its lifecycle, the CentriMag program experienced the same types of field actions that affect many cardiovascular platforms as usage increased. Root-cause analyses examined component tolerances, alarm logic, and human-factors interfaces. Corrective and preventive actions included labeling changes, training bulletins, and hardware or software revisions. The internal posture emphasized post-market vigilance, collecting site feedback, trending complaint data, and feeding insights back into risk files, rather than assuming performance would remain static across expanding indications and geographies. Within that framework, Dasse and colleagues highlighted the need for disciplined incident management and rapid, documented responses to field observations.
Magnetic levitation principles continue to influence the development of extracorporeal and implantable pumps. In short-term support, priorities include lower priming volumes, simplified oxygenator integration, and controller interfaces that reduce user error in high-stress environments. In pediatrics, engineering attention remains on very low flows, cannulation ergonomics, and neurologic outcome tracking that links device parameters to clinical endpoints. Lessons from bearingless rotors, clearance control, washout of potential stasis zones, and thermal management carry over into next-generation disposables and motors. On the implantable side, the field’s shift toward fully bearing-free designs reflects the same objective that motivated early Levitronix work: remove wear interfaces, stabilize hydrodynamics, and use control algorithms to keep operation within hemocompatible windows across daily living conditions.
Kurt A. Dasse’s role at Levitronix built on earlier work on implantable systems at Thermo Cardiosystems and Thermo Electron, and preceded later leadership in nitric oxide delivery at GeNO and advisory work in pediatric circulatory support. His background in physiology and device translation informed program decisions about clinical endpoints, anticoagulation tradeoffs, and trial design. After the Thoratec sale, those experiences intersected with broader ecosystem changes, as large manufacturers consolidated ventricular assist and extracorporeal portfolios and as centers formalized shock protocols that standardized the timing of transitions from inotropes to temporary mechanical support.
A decade after CentriMag’s early adoption, hospitals continue to staff dedicated shock teams that initiate rapid cannulation and controlled flow while diagnostic workups proceed. The clinical idea underlying Levitronix’s entry, stabilize now, decide next, remains embedded in multispecialty pathways spanning surgery, cardiology, perfusion, and critical care. In that sense, the “MagLev leap” stands less as a single product event and more as a systemic change: applying bearingless physics to a workflow that depends on reliability, predictable blood handling, and field-serviceable hardware.
The pediatric line necessitated the organization’s design around small vasculature and narrow physiologic margins. Those constraints, in turn, pushed the engineering discipline on priming volume, internal recirculation, and speed-flow curves. Many of those same constraints inform adult weaning protocols and low-flow management in right-sided failure, illustrating how pediatric requirements can shape adult best practices.
The 2011 integration positioned centrifugal short-term support alongside durable LVADs and, later, fully MagLev implantables. That sequence, short-term extracorporeal pumps informing implantable architectures, illustrates how knowledge moves across product classes. It also shows how companies connect perioperative devices with long-term systems to serve a continuum of heart failure care rather than isolated episodes.
The CentriMag and PediMag story sits at the intersection of engineering and clinical logistics: a bearingless rotor, a controller tuned for variable hospital environments, disposables sized to flow requirements, and training that turns complex hardware into a repeatable bedside routine. Within that intersection, Dasse’s contribution was to organize people and processes around the specific needs of short-term and pediatric support and to align those needs with a commercialization path that could survive audits, recalls, and mergers. The forward arc, pumps with fewer wear points and tighter control over shear, continues to shape how next-generation systems are specified, validated, and brought to the bedside.
Disclaimer: The content provided is for informational purposes only. The details discussed regarding CentriMag, PediMag, and the technologies mentioned are not intended as medical advice or a guarantee of performance. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and consult relevant medical professionals and regulatory authorities.
