A patient receives a fully autonomous artificial heart

2001/07/04 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Patenteak/Asmakizunak
• Medikuntza

The autonomous mechanical heart is called AbioCor and has been built by the company Abiomed. Made of titanium and polyurethane, it has the size of an Arabic apple and a kilo of weight. It consists of two artificial ventricles, valves and hydraulic blood pumping system. In fact, the artificial heart AbioCor is able to pump blood to the entire body. A battery that carries the patient tied at the waist provides energy to the small battery that contains the heart, so that the artificial heart stays in operation uninterruptedly. The main advantage of AbioCo is to be autonomous, operate by itself. Inventors believe that AbioCo will increase patients' quality of life and give them complete freedom to move.

However, Monday was the first session. The US FDA granted them permission in January to test AbioCor with 5 patients, and if the results are satisfactory, they will be able to continue the research with another 15 months. At the moment, thanks to AbioCo it will be possible to extend a few weeks the life of these patients.

The autonomous mechanical heart can have two applications. It can be a temporary heart for patients who expect a real heart or a definitive heart. The AbioCo mechanism is designed to last a long time, the most difficult thing is to keep the binomial AbioCor/sick.

In the history of artificial hearts, the Jarvick hearts of the 80s have been the most successful so far. The first patient to be applied the jarvick, with an artificial heart that lasted 112 days. Four new interventions were made and the longest Willian Schroeder lived: 620 days.