Seeing Iron man with an artificial heart seemed to only be far fetched fiction for us. However, today with cutting edge technology the most important organ in our body has been replaced by a machine. That’s right, technology that is replacing the heart with a simple machine and providing mechanical circulation of blood in our body!
The first artificial heart was made by Sir Robert Jarvik in 1980 and was known as the Jarvik 7. It was a groundbreaking revolution at that time. The Jarvik 7 was a plastic and Velcro pump that replicated the lower two chambers of the heart. It was ‘pumped’ by compressed air. The Jarvik 7 was first successfully implanted into a 61 year old dentist Barney Clarke. The Jarvik 7 however, was not an implantable heart, but a circulatory support and could not be used as a permanent heart because it was extremely large and cumbersome to use. It could only be used as a bridge till a donor heart became available.
Recently a more advanced technology has been developed that is known as The Total Artificial Heart (TAH). TAH technology has been used as a “bridge transplant” as well but it had been implanted in a patient for a period of 4.6 years till a donor heart became available. TAH is a pump that is surgically installed to provide circulation and replace heart ventricles that are diseased or damaged. The ventricles pump blood out of the heart to the lungs and other parts of the body. Machines outside the body control the implanted pumps, helping blood flow to and from the heart. TAH is so advanced that doctors consider using it as an alternative treatment in certain patients who are unable to receive a heart transplant.
TAH is a very intricate and complex technology. The TAH replaces the lower chambers of the heart, the ventricles. Tubes connect the TAH to a power source that is outside the body. The TAH then pumps blood through the heart’s major arteries to the lungs and the rest of the body.
The TAH has four mechanical valves that work like the heart’s own valves to control blood flow. These valves connect the TAH to your heart’s upper chambers, the atria and to the major arteries, the pulmonary artery, and the aorta. Once the TAH is connected, it duplicates the action of a normal heart, providing mechanical circulatory support and restoring normal blood flow through the body. The TAH is powered and controlled by a bedside console for patients in the hospital.
The TAH is the only FDA approved artificial heart available. The future is bright for mechanical circulatory support as new artificial hearts are being created with the continuing advances in technology.'
Diagrammatic comparison of the human heart and the artificial heart
~Keishaa Varma- Batch of 2020-21
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