Artificial Heart

The first implantation of a permanent artificial heart in a human being took place in December 1982. The polyurethane and aluminum Jarvik-7 artificial heart, named for its designer, Dr. Robert K. Jarvik, was implanted by a surgical team led by Dr. William C. DeVries at the University of Utah Medical Center. The patient Dr. Barney Clark, was suffering from cardiomyopathy, a degeneration of heart muscles, and from respiratory problems. Although Clark developed many complications and died of circulatory collapse on Mar 23, 1983, the implantation was considered a success. The Jarvik-7 device, a bit larger than a human heart, consisted of two chambers that replaced the natural heart’s ventricles, or lower chambers, and was anchored to the patient’s atria, or upper chambers. It was powered by an air compressor outside of the body. Several modified Jarvik hearts were implanted thereafter, but the recipients suffered strokes and none lived longer than 620 days. Federal funding for the Jarvik project ceased in 1988, and implantations in the United States were restricted to temporary use until a real heart could be transplanted. In 1990 the Food and Drug Administration banned the device after a study of its effects on recipients concluded that the machine was doing more to endanger lives than to save them. Funding continues for research on fully implanted, electrically driven artificial hearts and on implantable pumps. Called ventricular assists, that do not require total heart replacement.

The first success in artificial heart research was achieved in 1957, when Drs. Willem Kolff and Tesuzu Akutsu of Cleveland Clinic implanted a device that kept a dog alive for 1 ½ hours. Researchers thereafter developed four-chambered hearts for temporary use in human beings; the first successful operation to implant such a device was performed by Dr. Denton A. Cooley in 1969.