Artifical Heart

Started by pcguy2
Apply Smarter with MyERAS
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

Browse articles Compare schools My application plan Read Interview Feedback
Practice for interviews Ask an Advisor
pcguy2

pcguy2

Minneapolis Master
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Can anyone tell me how the artificial heart is progressing. Will artificial heart transplants be a reality in the future?

Honestly I'm surprised that a long turn replacement heart is not a reality yet. What gives? The artificial heart is such a promising area of development. It could honestly saves millions of lives of those who are on donor lists. Doesn't seem like much has happened in the past years. Am I wrong?

Thanks
 
It won't be needed bc Dr. Jarvik is going to cure heart disease with Lipitor.
 
pcguy2 said:
Honestly I'm surprised that a long turn replacement heart is not a reality yet. What gives? The artificial heart is such a promising area of development. It could honestly saves millions of lives of those who are on donor lists. Doesn't seem like much has happened in the past years. Am I wrong?
Click to expand...

Your optimism is commendable but you are failing to realize the complexity of the human body and its organs.

My physiology teacher from medical school used to tell us "the heart is a muscle and a pump". Sounds like common sense, especially to medical students...but it is a piece of tissue that needs to work every 0.8 seconds for the rest of your life. The more I learn the more in awe of these types of things I become.

Personally I am more hopeful that someone will design a cell phone that doesnt need to be upgraded every 2 years. Until they can do that, I dont see much hope for fully functional mechanical organs.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Ha! The artificial heart! That's a good one. I know a bunch of CT fellows hanging their hats on the artificial heart being the next big thing that will bring CT surgery back to its glory days. Keep dreaming fellas. The ship has sailed. Have fun being the cardiologist's caddy.
 
There are many problems with a potential artificial heart (I've been doing research into this since 1997). One of the major ones is that of a power source - the heart is a muscle, or a "pump," so an artificial heart needs a continuous power source that can last at least a couple of years, for all intents and purposes (who knows if the patient will live longer than that).

What are the possible options?

*An external source, but then you'd have wires and lines protroding through the skin, with the possibility of accidental disconnection, erosion, etc.
*A subcutaneous power pack (like a pacemaker) but this has its own problems such as possibility of trauma, need for constant recharging, etc.
*Nanotechnology and bioengineering (my major in college) - this includes such crazy ideas as using blood flow to power "water mills" for energy

Currently we have LVADs (left ventricular assist devices), but the goal is a TAH (total artificial heart) - the best we can do for now is to use donor hearts from donor patients. This is, of course, only a temporizing measure.
 
dynx said:
The xenograft transplant is the future of cardiac transplant surgery, and it always will be.
Click to expand...

Ha ha, it's been the "future" of CT surgery ever since Hardy tried to transplant a baboon heart like 4 decades ago. So I guess you're right, it will always be the future of CT surgery.

It's great you fellas are clinging to dreams of CT surgery making a comeback but the writing's on the wall. A lot of the guys recently finishing CT fellowships thought the same thing as they go back to doing general surgery to pay the bills.
 
maybe the field will never be what it used to be
(millionaires doing heart surgery)

but the CT surgeon can always take solace in the fact that he will be one of the few individuals who can perform big, bad open surgery.

they are the only bad-asses left in the hospital these days.
 
Blade28 said:
Currently we have LVADs (left ventricular assist devices), but the goal is a TAH (total artificial heart) - the best we can do for now is to use donor hearts from donor patients. This is, of course, only a temporizing measure.
Click to expand...

Those LVADs are very cool. My friend was working on a pediatric one at my university. (She was bioengineering too)

Blade, as far as the power source....is it just a matter of waiting for battery technology to develop further? I've been hearing from various sources about all sorts of new battery concepts developing (slowly) that could theoretically last a massive amount of time compared to our traditional ones. This stuff can't be THAT far away can it? Hell, they are talking about marketable quantum computing in 30-40 years....seems like a battery that could last 10 to 20 years is within reach before then! Also, you know if they are focusing on any other organs, or is the heart viewed as the "easier" organ.....easy being very very very very relative.
 
I think we'll biogenetically engineer an organ before we have mechanical heart devices running on batteries. You know something we grow in like the omentum of a pig or something. That way it will run on Sugar, and O2 like the rest of our body. We'll knock out all the immunogenic markers so that rejection would be minimal.

Justin
 
MossPoh said:
Blade, as far as the power source....is it just a matter of waiting for battery technology to develop further? I've been hearing from various sources about all sorts of new battery concepts developing (slowly) that could theoretically last a massive amount of time compared to our traditional ones. This stuff can't be THAT far away can it? Hell, they are talking about marketable quantum computing in 30-40 years....seems like a battery that could last 10 to 20 years is within reach before then! Also, you know if they are focusing on any other organs, or is the heart viewed as the "easier" organ.....easy being very very very very relative.
Click to expand...

Probably not - I'm sure there are other problems as well (for example, finding a material durable enough to last while allowing the heart to beat continuously).

60 movements per minute = 3,600 movements per hour = 86,400 movements per day = 31,536,000 movements per year! 😱

What other machines/engines/devices can you think of that allow that many movements, without deformation or undue stresses, month after month after month?

(Don't say a watch. 🙂 )
 
Blade28 said:
Probably not - I'm sure there are other problems as well (for example, finding a material durable enough to last while allowing the heart to beat continuously).

60 movements per minute = 3,600 movements per hour = 86,400 movements per day = 31,536,000 movements per year! 😱

What other machines/engines/devices can you think of that allow that many movements, without deformation or undue stresses, month after month after month?

(Don't say a watch. 🙂 )
Click to expand...

High end acoustic guitars. 😉 They get better sounding with age. Of course..it'd be some intense strumming and string changes required. I also have a hand me down drum with a goat skin head that is well over 15 years old under tension and doing well. I mean, that is in a nice controlled environment and it doesn't get drilled as hard for hours as it used to be...but the key between those two examples appears to be the give the materials allow. (excuse me for sucking at the proper terminology) I'm not arguing with you by the way, I just like knowing what is going on with this stuff...it is also one of the more interesting discussions around here lately in my opinion. 😉 Obviously friction and undue stresses are an issue. I also wouldn't see a person with an artificial heart going years without a cardiologist appointment in the first place. 😛 It just seems to me that the technologies/materials need to play some catchup. Start yelling at those material science people to get off their a$$. Slackers..all you engineers are slackers I tell you. 😛
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Blade28 said:
But no moving parts, really. 🙂
Click to expand...

good point. maybe the whole paradigm is wrong. does an artificial heart need moving parts? aren't there materials which contract when stimulated by electricity?
 
Well that's the thing - you have to have the artificial walls, or valves, or pistons, or whatever that's driving the blood flow, to move.
 
You dont need to "pump" either, the Jarvik and Heartmate II are axial flow pumps
--they work more like a jet engine.
Plus, LVAD's + Beta blockers are the only thing (other than the Ornish diet) known to reverse heart failure. Its all about the VAD's baby.

Oh yeah, Misterioso, with that confederate pic on your avatar, I am not sure you're too good at picking the winning team 😉
 
You must log in or register to reply here.