Heart
The origins of creating an artificial heart dates back to 1953, where they used a heart-lung machine to perform a “simple” open heart surgery.
This first successful use of a heart-lung machine in a medical scenario was the start of the long need or want of an artificial heart.
The first “clinical” trail of using an artificial heart was on December 12, 1957, where Dr. Johan Kolff implanted his rendition of an artificial heart into a dog; the dog lived for 90 minutes.
The next advancement in an artificial heart was in February 19666 when Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz implanted the first permanent partial mechanical heart. This operation was a full success.
In 1967 Dr. Kolff created his own organization where he began to create and test new forms of a total artificial heart.
-In 1973, a calf named Tony survived for 30 days on an early Kolff heart.
-In 1975, a bull named Burk survived 90 days on the artificial heart.
-In 1976, a calf named Abebe lived for 184 days on the Jarvik 5 artificial heart.
-In 1981, a calf named Alfred Lord Tennyson lived for 268 days on the Jarvik 5
Through the years, many people have tried to improve upon the Kolff heart and all after designs, each one with its own personal clinical trial, and generally each trail doing better than the one before it, with a few exceptions.
Recently on October 27, 2008, French professor and leading heart transplant specialist Alain F. Carpentier announced that a fully implantable artificial heart will be ready for clinical trial by 2011 and for alternative transplant in 2013.
