Aside from its controversial nature and the media's subsequent focus on many of the complications in the patients that followed, the Jarvik-7 is the most successful artificial heart of its kind to have ever been designed. Five patients were implanted with the Jarvik-7 as a permanent replacement for the heart. On average, these patients lived 10 months, each with complications along the way. William Schroeder was among these five, and he lived longest on the Jarvik-7, for a period of 620 days.
Because the the Jarvik-7 proved to be viable for extended periods of time but not for "forever" so to speak, it has become part of the bridge process for the transplantation of a new heart. Patients who obtain and must live on Jarvik-7's during this bridge process have lived for years after receiving their donor hearts. For example, one patient lived fourteen years after receiving his donor heart.
The Jarvik-7 consists of two pumps that function in like the heart itself. It has two ventricles in the shape of a shpere and made of polyurethane. The pumps in the Jarvik-7 are powered by air pumps (pneumatic) that push the blood through inlet and outlet valves. The artificial heart itself is attached to the natural atria of the heart by Dacron felt. The powersource for the pumps themselves are powered by drive lines attached to an "air-driven, external power system" (Jarvik-7). The power system is a console roughly the size and weight of a home refrigerator, and is portable with a backup baterry system in case of power failure.
- Robert Jarvik on the Jarvik-7. Jarvik Heart. <http://www.jarvikheart.com/basic.asp?id=69>.
- The Jarvik-7 Total Artificial Heart. April 2006. Texas Heart Institute. <http://www.texasheart.org/Research/Devices/j7tah.cfm>.
1 comment:
I was surprised at how long the artificial heart lasted in the case of William Schroeder. I liked the clarification of what we learned the other day. Well written.
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