Word: abiocor
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...become the first person to receive a fully contained mechanical heart. The retired tech librarian, 59, from Franklin, Ky., revealed his identity and addressed the media last week--two months after doctors had given him only 30 days to live. Tools opted to have the device, the AbioCor, implanted as part of a federal clinical trial at Jewish Hospital in Louisville. Surgeons Robert Dowling and Laman Gray are pleased with his progress and hope to release Tools after he regains about 30 lbs. Until then, no vigorous activity--which means Tools must keep press conferences to twice a week...
...patient's new heart is the AbioCor, made by Abiomed of Danvers, Mass. It is the second type of totally artificial heart to be tested in people - the Jarvik-7, you may recall, was implanted in patient Dr. Barney Clark at the University of Utah in December 1982 - but it is a great leap forward. The Jarvik-7 was air-driven, which meant that tubes had to connect huge compressors to the device. Mobility was impossible; infection and complications were inevitable...
...AbioCor runs on a tiny internal pump that spins about 10,000 times a minute, moving hydraulic fluid through a valve that alternately allows blood to be pumped to the lungs or the body. There is a small battery inside the device powering its control unit; that battery is in turn powered by an external battery pack (worn on the belt or suspenders) that transfers energy across the skin, without any connections. Without wires. Without tubes...
...Complications are inevitable with a heart this new and a man this sick, but as the week went on the AbioCor, whirring away at a steady 120 beats a minute (later, it will be adjusted to respond to the patient's level of activity) was outperforming expectations. By Tuesday morning - even after a second, two-hour operation to repair a loose stitch - it had already cleared the patient's lungs of fluid...
...Americans who need one. When doctors tried 20 years ago to substitute an artificial heart, the experiment was a heroic failure attended by great public anguish. Now the FDA has approved--but only for testing--a new artificial heart: a grapefruit-size, battery-powered device called AbioCor. The robo heart will give patients limited mobility and is intended to be a permanent organ replacement, not a stopgap remedy...