The artificial heart: Medical improvements on infections and strokes

Abstract

Artificial hearts are designed to eliminate the need for heart transplants, which are in short supply. However, these devices are prone to creating complications such as infections or strokes. The complications occur from the mechanical aspects of the device. Therefore, the devices’ effectiveness is influenced by their design. This paper investigates the advances in technology of different artificial hearts that are being developed. The four devices evaluated in this paper are: the total artificial heart, the left ventricular assist device, the total internal artificial heart, and the HeartWare ventricular assist device. Research shows that the total artificial heart may result in both infections and strokes. The left ventricular assist device lowered the probability of these complications but did not eliminate the risk altogether. While the internal artificial heart was able to eliminate the risk of infections entirely, it introduced new complications. Finally, the HeartWare ventricular assist device decreased the rate of adverse events for the complications occurring over time. Given these results, artificial hearts still require further research to improve the risk of complication before the phasing out of heart transplants can occur.