Status of the artificial heart program in Berlin

Abstract

The artificial organs program in Berlin started more than 20 years ago. The main emphasis in the circulatory assist and replacement devices program was and still is on the development of an electro-pneumatic total artificial heart (TAH) system. Additionally, a temporary assist system and investigations in the field of biomaterials are included in the research activities. Topics of the program are: interactions between natural and artificial materials, blood pump development and in vitro fatigue testing, driving units and energy transmission, measurement equipment needed for the surveillance and automatic control of the TAH system, in vivo studies of the response of the circulatory system and the organs, in vivo reliability, and training of the staff for clinical readiness. The joint efforts of engineers of different disciplines and medical doctors, working together in the department of experimental surgery, supported in the past by industrial partners, resulted after extensive in vitro and in vivo investigations in the clinical application of temporary assist devices and the realization of a percutaneous portable, electro-pneumatic total artificial heart system.

Past and present of cardiocirculatory assist devices: a comprehensive critical review

“…A pneumatically driven, two-chambered apparatus was then being developed for total heart replacement [15]. Unlike heart transplantation, however, the artificial heart failed to become established in clinical practice in that early period,[16] and the type of artificial heart that was then under development is in clinical use today in only a few special situations.…”

Regulation of Pneumatic Total Artificial Heart Function: A Review

“…This system also increases the preload sensitivity with the addition of a regulated diastolic vacuum controller. An increase in atrial pressure can be detected by an increase in the stable value of the diastolic plateau, which signals the controller to increase the vacuum to maintain the filling pressure at a preset value within a particular diastolic interval (18,19).…”

Application of a MEMS-based energy harvester for artificial heart wireless energy transmission

“…E.S. Bucherl adopted a portable energy device for recharging a battery pack [5].Numerical study on a power supply method to the primary coil circuit was reported by Toshinaga Ozeki et al [6]. They researched a type of TET system in which the electrical energy to the primary coil is supplied by electromagnetic waves inside the room instead of an external battery.…”