Heart failure (HF) causes more deaths in the United States each year than all forms of cancer combined, and it is estimated that 10 million people in the United States will suffer from HF in the year 2037.  The options for a patient with HF are limited.  Transplantable organs are not always available, and ventricular assist devices (VAD’s) can only do so much.  For decades, scientists have attempted to create an artificial heart, but theirs is still a work in progress.

In the early 1980s, researchers led by Drs. Robert Jarvik and William DeVries created the first artificial heart, and their efforts received significant public attention.  Unfortunately, the project was overhyped, and the artificial heart did not live up to the world’s high expectations.  The development of the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporine in the 1980s made organ transplants more effective, and the pace of research on the artificial heart slowed.   

Today, a company called SynCardia has revived the total artificial heart and produces a device based upon the Jarvik heart.  This new artificial heart is known as the CardioWest heart, and like the Jarvik heart, it requires cumbersome external drivelines.  Advantages of the new heart include the fact that it minimizes artificial surface area and can pump over nine liters of blood per minute.  In a recent clinical trial, the CardioWest heart helped patients awaiting transplantation live longer.  In the future, SynCardia hopes to create a smaller artificial heart and to enhance patient mobility by reducing the bulkiness of the external drivelines.

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