IT’S a pump that could bring your heart back to life. A lack of donated hearts often means people with heart failure die waiting for a replacement. But now a robotic device has been designed to help out with pumping duties to keep diseased hearts beating for longer. at Boston Children’s Hospital, one of the creators of the device, hopes it may even allow a full heart recovery, rendering a transplant unnecessary.
The device consists of an implanted semi-circular brace that hugs the diseased chamber, surrounding it with an inflatable sleeve. To keep it in place, it is anchored to the interventricular septum – a sturdy wall that separates the heart’s two main chambers. When the sleeve inflates, it squeezes the diseased chamber to give it an extra boost while it pumps (, ).
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Other devices tend to bypass the damaged heart, and because they typically need to have blood flowing through them, anticoagulants are necessary to prevent the blood clotting. “With anticoagulant therapy, it’s very hard to reach the balance between too much and not enough,” says Vasilyev. Getting the balance wrong can lead to bleeding or clotting.
So rather than bypassing the heart, Vasilyev’s robotic device utilises it. “Conceptually, it’s a very straightforward and elegant idea: use the heart but simply give it an extra squeeze,” says Peter Friend at the University of Oxford.
This forced exercise might do more than just keep the heart going. “We believe that this additional help will be enough for the heart to become healthy again in some circumstances,” says Vasilyev.
“Heart failure is a huge health problem, but there is some evidence that it is a reversible condition,” says Friend. Giving the ticker a hand during ticking just might be key to recovery.
This article appeared in print under the headline “Robotic pump helps hearts keep beating”
