First Artificial Heart Implanted in Human Patient

[Rufus Shinra]

Wikipedia: "the first artificial heart to be successfully implanted in a human was the Jarvik-7, designed by Robert Jarvik and implemented in 1982."

So, um, is this the first FRENCH artificial heart or did this article take 31 years to get posted?

Serious, just a little research guys.

As they are saying "transplanted" I would speculate that they mean this one is the first internal one, usually artificial hearts are either large machines or the size of a travel case and the patient has to carry around a box with pumps in etc. Not sure though I guess its time actually do some research about it.

The heart itself is purely internal, even from 1982. The oldest ones needed massive machines to keep them going and didn't last long. The ones made more recently have been internal if a little large, but they haven't needed massive support machines in 20 years.

Apparently, you still needed, until now, a backpack with the support machines (I posted a link to the BBC where they talked about the first Briton who could leave the hospital with an artificial heart and he still needed that support equipment - in 2011).

 

[Floppertje]

not to bagitalize this or anything, but 'successful if the patient survives for a month' doesn't seem all THAT ambitious if the heart is supposed to work for 5 years.

 

[DeaDRabbiT]

not to bagitalize this or anything, but 'successful if the patient survives for a month' doesn't seem all THAT ambitious if the heart is supposed to work for 5 years.

I'm not sure the "1 month" success deadline has a whole lot to do with the actual functional longevity of the device, but more the adaptation of the body to the device. If the body can survive with this particular artificial heart for over a month, it is most likely able to survive the 5 year (or less) estimate.

 

[ryo02]

I was unaware that this hadn't been done before. I guess it's just particularly interesting this time or something.

Also, to the people saying that 5 years isn't a good amount of time for a new organ to function. It's obviously longer than the amount of time the current model was going to last. And you'd obviously only get this if there were no alternatives like proper donors and whatnot. Even a mere month would at least be long enough to set your affairs in order, let alone a full 5 extra years. And that's even enough time for a better model to get made. Hell, this could probably be used as a means of keeping a patient alive until a proper donor could be found, and then maybe return for future use. Although that does sound disgusting, I'd imagine it could be reused.

other than not knowing it hadn't been done before you pretty much said what I was going to say. why would reusing it be disgusting? I'm fairly sure they will wipe the blood off before sticking it in someone else. and that's more than you can say for donated organs.

not to bagitalize this or anything, but 'successful if the patient survives for a month' doesn't seem all THAT ambitious if the heart is supposed to work for 5 years.

they expect/hope it will work for 5 years however if it proves only to be able to keep them alive for a month it will still have use's for patients on the organ waiting lists.

 

[Someone Depressing]

[Youtube = v=C1vjA4AQ5I0&feature]

I found this on Cracked. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1vjA4AQ5I0&feature=player_embedded)

If a person could have, like, three hearts, then how many lovers' harsh denials can he take?

6,314,406

This is still pretty awesome, though.

 

[SecondPrize]

I don't get it. This is even getting the same headlines implying it's the fist of its kind elsewhere.

 

[Zipa]

That's pretty awesome Now we have a backup in cause of nausicaan backstabbing.

That was my first thought as well though on the down side if anything goes wrong you might end up getting treated by Dr. Pulaski.

 

[kannibus]

All refs to Star Trek and Deus Ex aside (but were, nonetheless, very cool) I thought we already had artificial hearts? After all, aren't there big warning signs to people with pacemakers?

 

[templar1138a]

Add another tally to the "Check your damn facts, Escapist" column.

I learned about the REAL first artificial heart when I was in fifth grade. FIFTH. GRADE.

 

[spartan231490]

You realize that they've been permanently implanting artificial hearts since the early 80s, right? This is just a new version from a different company, or maybe it's the first time it's been done in France. Seriously, this is nothing new.

 

[spartan231490]

All refs to Star Trek and Deus Ex aside (but were, nonetheless, very cool) I thought we already had artificial hearts? After all, aren't there big warning signs to people with pacemakers?

A pacemaker and an artificial heart are very different things. A pacemaker just gives your heart tiny electric shocks telling it when to beat. An artificial heart actually pumps blood. However, yes, we've had artificial hearts for a long time. Starting in the '60s, they would implant artificial hearts for a few days so they could get a transplant heart, and in 1982 they implanted the first artificial heart meant to be permanent. This is just the first time this particular model of artificial heart has been used.

 

[michael87cn]

That looks like it would hurt like hell to have inside of you. Especially the 3 times heavier than normal part.

As someone who has experienced heart palpitations before (for a month, terrifying) I can attest that ANY abnormal feeling in your heart is extremely uncomfortable. I imagine you would barely feel alive with that monstrosity roboticly beating away inside of you, unchanging unlike a human heart which has a fluctuating heart rate that is controlled by the brain (and the human).

How terrifying and sad it would be to have to have that inside of you. You would feel sick and weak and fragile as all hell, permanently.

People fantasizing of this thing actually giving someone 'life' are delusional, you would be conscious but you would also be in misery. Barely able to walk, barely able to breathe, barely able to live. This is not the future.

 

[Rinshan Kaihou]

Well, to be honest, the average life expectancy for a transplantee of a real human heart is what, 7 years? So 5 years from an artificial one is pretty darn good. My aunt had a transplant over 25 years ago, and is still living (relatively) healthily today. I'd be surprised if these don't last longer than expected.

 

[crepesack]

These implants are designed as bridge devices so that the patient has a chance at getting an actual heart transplant in the future.

 

[Rufus Shinra]

Add another tally to the "Check your damn facts, Escapist" column.

I learned about the REAL first artificial heart when I was in fifth grade. FIFTH. GRADE.

You realize that they've been permanently implanting artificial hearts since the early 80s, right? This is just a new version from a different company, or maybe it's the first time it's been done in France. Seriously, this is nothing new.

As said before, the previous artificial hearts required external support machines to actually work for more than a few hours, and even in 2011, it was newsworthy for the BBC to have someone being able to leave the hospital with his artificial heart and "only" a backpack-sized power source.

It seems that this artificial heart is completely autonomous, which is one hell of a breakthrough compared to the ones from the Eighties that required a dishwasher-sized machine to power and control them.

 

[Doclector]

Everybody!

SLAVE TO THE NEW BLACK GOLD
THERE'S A HEARTBEAT UNDER MY SKIN

So yeah, this is a thing that is happening. It's far from perfect at this point, I can't imagine having a literally heavy heart is pleasant, and every five years? That may seem like long enough, but this is major invasive surgery we're talking about.

But this is a massive step forward, and opens the doors for other synthetic organs and better versions of the synthetic heart. Remember, you can't get the final skill on the tree without picking the first one.

 

[Fearzone]

Wonder how much the Chinese knock-off is going to cost?

But yeah, this is not the first artificial heart implanted in a human patient. Sorry.