A new device to assist heart failure patients has
successful
animal trial
To aid in management of the condition, researchers based at Harvard and the Boston Children's Hospital, and in Leeds, have developed a new soft robotic device that fastens to the heart’s surface and mimics cardiac muscle contraction. Made of a silicon-based material similar to that of the heart’s muscles, the device pumps the heart with pressurized air that can be customized to compress specific areas of the heart. This allows ample blood to be pumped properly throughout the body. When relaxed, the sleeve succors the heart to expand with blood in order to be sent out into the next compression.
Research was conducted on 6 individual pig hearts. Testing of the device revealed it was able to synchronize with the shape and movement of the hearts, as well as promote blood flow around the body. The sleeve technique was initially developed during the era of polio, but has recently been applied to the new field of soft robotics. Though still in early development, the study shows promising results.
Other ventricular assisting devices coinciding with a heart pump exist, but are mechanical and require implantation into the heart. Direct contact between the device and the heart can cause complications such as blood clots, strokes, and bleeding. Fitting around the heart removes these possibilities and the pressurized air powering the device would be stored and transported in a similar fashion as the ventricular assist devices do, in a backpack or purse.
While the device was successful, the experiments’ duration only lasted a few hours. More extensive studies are required on both animals and humans before the device will be ready for commercial sale, but Dr. Christopher O'Connor, chief executive of the Inova Heart and Vascular Institute, said he’s, “quite impressed with where this research is going."
