The heart is a fairly simple organ. It’s a pump, composed of four chambers, with a few valves, tubes, and clever wiring. But when the pump no longer works as it should, things start looking grim. In people with severe heart failure, the pump is so weak that it no longer moves blood through the body effectively.
Those affected are extremely short of breath, even at rest. Their organs are no longer supplied with blood sufficiently, so have a lack of oxygen and nutrients. The only way out is a new heart.
The first artificial heart was implanted in 1982
- Cardiologists and heart surgeons have been trying to build artificial hearts for over 60 years.
- For patients whose heart is severely ill but not completely damaged, some systems can support parts of the heart, but for patients who’s entire heart is severely damaged, that’s not enough — they need a replacement.
- In 1982, the first complete and permanent heart was implanted in the US. However, these hearts only have basic functions, and they’re not tailored to the specific needs of the patient.
50 artificial hearts implanted in recent years
The main beneficiary of this purported Carmat heart was a 76-year-old elderly person with an extreme heart condition. He was able to live another 74 days thanks to the new pump.
Stéphane Piat, head of Carmat, the company that developed the artificial heart, explains that numerous additional modifications have been made to the surface material, software, and pumps in recent years. Around 50 hearts of this sort have now been introduced in patients. For 14 patients, they were the break arrangement before getting a benefactor’s heart.
An artificial heart is a temporary solution