Skipping the Beat The

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Skipping the BeatThe Beatless Heart

• Tyler Blake Professor Ying Sun
• University of Rhode Island
• BME 281

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Wings that flap didnt help mankind fly, so why
must a substitute heart beat like a natural one?
Mother nature did the best she could Billy
Cohn, researcher at Texas Heart Institute

• This past year a 55 year old man from Texas had
  the first beatless heart transplant saving him
  from a death doctors told him was 12 hours away
  he had no pulse and was technically flat lined
  but was not dead.

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• The normal human heart works on a system using
  cardiac muscles
• Electrical impulses tell cardiac muscles to
  squeeze
• Blood pushes through each of the heart's four
  chambers
• The pulse or beat allows for blood to circulate
  through the body efficiently

• Rather than using a beating mechanism that
  would mimic the bodys heart, Dr. Cohn and Dr.
  Frazier devised a system entirely different.
• They interconnected two ventricular assist
  devices
• The rotors in the devices work together to whirl
  around the blood in the device
• The device propels the blood through the vascular
  system in a continuous flow

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Ventricular Assist Device

• Ventricular assist devices were invented in 1980
• Recently Dick Cheney had one implanted to help
  with ventricular failure
• This past year has been the first time a complete
  heart was created from two assisting devices.
• These devices connect the ventricles to the aorta
  and so help each ventricle push the blood by push
  the blood by battery powered rotors. powered
  rotors.