When: Thursday 20th of March, 1:00pm AEDT
Where: This seminar will be partially presented at the ACFR seminar area, J04 lvl 2 (Rose St Building) and partially online via Zoom. RSVP
Speaker: Graham Brooker
Title: Artificial Hearts
Abstract:
Charles Lindburgh better known for making first nonstop flight from New York to Paris, a distance of 3,600 miles, flying alone for 33.5 hours was also an inventer. In the 1920s, he and Alexis Carrel worked on “mechanical circulatory support” and made some successful pumps to replace the hearts of animals for short periods. His work later focussed on pumping blood around organs to keep them alive when removed from the body. This work was extended by a Soviet Researcher who worked in the field between 1937 and 1953. However, it is William Kolff who is recognised as the main pioneer for the development of artificial hearts for human patients. In the 1960s he developed both pneumatically and solenoid driven hearts that were implanted in dogs and were used to identify issues with human implants. In 1963 the first patented artificial heart was developed by a ventriloquist Paul Winchell with the help of doctor Henry Heimlich (of the Heimlich Manoeuvre fame). He assigned his patent to Utah University where Robert Jarvik used the design for the Jarvik-7. Between 1967 and 1976, Kolf and his collaborators developed and implanted a range of Jarvik-x models into animals until by 1976 a Jarvik-7 had kept a calf alive, and apparently in good health for 268 days. The heart surgeon, William deVries thought he was ready to move from animals to human patients. The technician who made the hearts was doubtful, but was in the end persuaded to prepare one, and it was implanted into Barney Clark in 1982. The rule was that artificial hearts could only be implanted into people who were too sick with other problems to be eligible for a transplant and were expected to die shortly. Clark lived on in hospital for 112 days before dying of renal failure, but he was never in good condition. The heart was still beating fine. The Jarvik-7 consisted of two identical plastic chambers divided in two by a membrane that separated the pump side from the air side. It was driven by a large compressor with airlines that penetrated through the skin of the abdomen to drive the mechanism. The Jarvik-7 was implanted into 90 people and most had slightly better outcomes than Clark, with the record being 18 months. Its use was suspended for permanent implant as most of the recipients didn’t live for more than six months and their quality of life was poor. Since then, the technology has improved significantly with the focus moving from total artificial hearts to left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), and I will mostly be talking about the technology used in these. Australia has been involved in the development of both LVADs and total artificial hearts, with the latest offering by a Melbourne based company BiVACOR having recently (2024) had five successful implants, and are hoping to extend that by a further 10 this year.
Bio:
I am an Electrical Engineer who got my BSc and MSc from Wits (Johannesburg) some 40 years ago, and my PhD here at Sydney Uni in 2005. I worked in industry, building radars, for 20 years before joining the ACFR in 1999 where I built more radars but also developed an interest in Biomedical technology. I have written two books, one on Sensors that was recently republished as a 2nd edition, and I am working on the 2nd edition of the Biomechatronics book. You wouldn’t see me dead having an artificial heart implanted in me.