Why is it so complex to design an artificial heart ? Due to the limited availability of heart transplants, it is possible to use an artificial heart while waiting for a heart transplant. After decades of research and development into total artificial hearts (TAH), there is only one solution that provides a transitional technological alternative while waiting for a heart transplant: there is no destination therapy yet that allows patients to live with a heart prosthesis in the long term. Innovati...

A sustainable alternative to the heart transplant shortage Each year 200,000 heart failure patients worldwide are waiting for a heart transplant The number of patients on waiting lists and the shortage of organs are the main threats to organ transplantation: only 3% of patients receive a donor heart. In the case of end-stage heart failure, the last alternative is to replace the failing heart with a total artificial heart (TAH). The implantation is performed surgically in the same way as a heart...

Xenotransplantation or artificial heart : What is the future of cardiac medicine ? In France, heart failure affects 1.5 million people per year, and 200,000 patients with acute heart failure are hospitalised each year, according to the official website of the French Health Insurance. Our country, like the rest of the world, has been confronted for years with a shortage of organs and tissues, while the need for transplants continues to increase (cf Agence de biomédecine). The extent of the short...