Mechanical alternatives to the human heart: intracorporeal assist systems and total artificial heart.
The currently available intracorporeal assist systems and total artificial heart provide long-term support for patients terminally ill with congestive heart failure, often in an out-of-hospital environment. While they are currently widely used mainly as a long-term bridge to heart transplantation, their inherent risks of infection or stroke are prompting interest in future devices that will be smaller, fully implantable and hopefully stroke-free. These devices will be described in the last part of this review.
Lavee
Jacob
J
Heart Transplantation Unit, Department of Cardiac Surgery, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel. jaylavee@netvision.net.il
Paz
Yoav
Y
D004867:Equipment Design; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000628:therapy*; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006354:Heart, Artificial; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D019736:Prostheses and Implants; D015996:Survival Rate