Total artificial heart to be ready by 2011: research team

A fully implantable artificial heart designed to overcome the worldwide shortage of transplant donors will be ready for clinical trial by 2011, the French professor behind the prototype said Monday.

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4.8/5 after 6 votes

• Bob_Kob - Oct 28, 2008
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  I don't see why it is so hard to produce a mechanical pump which replaces the heart.
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• Soylent - Nov 26, 2008
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  I don't see why it is so hard to produce a mechanical pump which replaces the heart.

  
  
  Are you kidding?
  
  First, the power source.
  
  I see only three options. The first is some kind of big, rechargable battery with a very long service life that is recharged through the skin via induction like many modern cell phones or electric tooth brushes. Don't forget to charge or you're SOL.
  
  The second is a fuel cell that somehow manages to operates on blood.
  
  The third is a sealed power-source based on nuclear decay able to go many years without recharging. It can't be plutonium-238 RTGs like some pacemakers produced in the 70's and early 80's(many of which are still functioning and implanted in patients by the way); plutonium-238 is too expensive for a power source this size as it has to be especially produced in a reactor(Pu-239 and higher is no substitute). It probably can't even be an RTG as those aren't very efficient and may heat tissues too much if you need several watts of power. It would have to be something like a high-efficiency beta-voltaic power source(which haven't been invented yet) fueled by an abundant fuel such as strontium-90 from reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
  
  Whatever power source you choose, you've got to deal with immune system rejection and blood clotting which are a problem even with todays small and simple devices. Ideally you'd do something like take tissues from the heart of a pig or animal an decellularize them and repopulate with human cells using adult stem cells from the patient who is to recieve the heart.
  
  Since the heart is permanent there's a low tolerance for mechanical failure. I don't see how you could justify the great expense in even making them if they won't on average give you a few more years rather than months.
  
  They've had problems just making VADs with an external powersupply.
  
  
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