People with very ill hearts go on the heart transplant list and can have it replaced with the healthy heart of a patient who has died and donated theirs. This is a complex operation but is often successful although the patient has to take a lot of drugs for the rest of their life.
Artificial hearts have been developed and a few implanted but they were initially fairly unsuccessful, didn’t last long and caused significant pain to he recipients. However, in the last few years researchers have developed new versions and a few people around the world have been implanted with them. These devices are basically two pumps, often driven by fans, which replace the left and right ventricles but not the upper chambers of the heart. Some are driven by hydraulic air flows out side the body but the newest are continuous flow pumps. Unlike the heart these pumps move blood aroiund the body continuously rather than in a pulsing fashion. The patient therefore doesn’t appear to have a pulse but is alive! these devices keep the patient alive and sometimes they can go home to continue living their lives, but they are not long term solutions and will fail relatively quickly. Most patients will therefore still require a heart transplant.
There are things called heart and lung machines which take blood out of the body oxygenated and pump it back in. You are right though most patients are only on it for the minimal amount of time possible, usually just enough time to stop the heart and repair it. The longer the patient is on bypass the less likely their own heart will start up again when shocked.
Comments
spacenut commented on :
Isn’t there a machine that takes blood takes out of the body and does the job of the heart? I think it just buys time.?
Lisa commented on :
Hi @spacenut, thats a great comment!
There are things called heart and lung machines which take blood out of the body oxygenated and pump it back in. You are right though most patients are only on it for the minimal amount of time possible, usually just enough time to stop the heart and repair it. The longer the patient is on bypass the less likely their own heart will start up again when shocked.
Thanks for a great comment!
Lisa