Thursday, November 26, 2015

World's first bionic heart worked so well in sheep, it's coming to humans

                          
A new type of mechanical heart is bringing a lot of excitement to the medical community, and the odd part?  It doesn't have a pulse.
The BiVACOR is a (literally) revolutionary new technology that contains two spinning titanium discs on a single rotor that spin at 2000 revolutions per minute.  They send a constant flow of blood, smoothly, through the mecahnism.
It lasts for up to a decade and it’s smaller and less susceptible to wear and tear than current artificial hearts.  Issues with old-school mechanical hearts would occur because, in the words of Daniel Timms, formerly from the Queensland University of Technology, "they would have a [balloon-like] sac, so if you're beating them billions of times per year, they're going to break."
Having one moving part (the spinning disc in the middle) gives this machine a much longer lifespan.  It has been tested, successfully in sheep, and human testing will begin within three to five years.  According to Timms, "Proving the concept was the first real hurdle. There are many to go from here but we're confident we have the collaborative team to take it to that next level."
With over a million people, per year, in need of a new (or healthier) heart, and only 4000 or so donors usually available, this kind of technology is a must to further human and animal health.

No comments:

Post a Comment