5 ms·
See "total artificial heart": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_heart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_heart Layperson speculation: hard to powe
by jacobn 5y ago
See "total artificial heart": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_heart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_heart
Layperson speculation: hard to power 24/7 without an external power source, it must connect seamlessly to the blood stream (can't have it disconnect from the aorta after five weeks), and the surfaces exposed to the blood must not cause blood clots (so careful at the seams).
- Blikkentrekker 5y agoIt does make me wonder how the transplanted pig heart or any transplanted heart connects so seamlessly. The issue simply heals and grows together with the foreign tissue?
- iancmceachern 5y agoThey use a common medical technique called anastomosis. Basically they just sew the two arteries/vessels together with suture and the blood and tissue seals it as any other cut or nick in the body. Sometimes they use "bioglue" but its not strictly needed, just a timesaver.
- Blikkentrekker 5y agoAnd the pig tissue then connects with the human tissue and eventually heals to form a connected vessel? or it never grows together but it is sealed with a blood cloth?
- iancmceachern 5y agoExactly, the former.
- Blikkentrekker 5y agoSo say I carve a wound onto my skin, and then put live skin with a sufficient tissue match onto it and connect the blood vessels so that the new live skin does not die; then the live skin graft and my own damaged skin will hen heal into each other and form a connected totality?
- desmosxxx 5y agoFor skin & a "sufficient tissue match", yes. See e.g. tissue scaffolds.
- saalweachter 5y agoIt's not quite all that seamless - since we can't hook up the nerves, your new heart won't adjust its rate the way your original did.
- tempestn 5y agoI didn't know that. Do all heart transplants come with pacemakers then? Edit: looks like it's just some nerves, not all. > Your transplanted heart will respond to activity a little differently. Your heart rate will not increase like it used to. And you will have a higher resting heart rate. This is because some of the nerves that control your heart were cut during your surgery. https://www.cham.org/HealthwiseArticle.aspx?id=hw30661 https://www.cham.org/HealthwiseArticle.aspx?id=hw30661
- saalweachter 5y agoMy understanding -- which should be taken with two grains of salt, I'm a programmer not a doctor -- is that the pacemaker cells which actually go "beat now beat now beat now" are part of the heart itself, and transplanted with it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiac_pacemaker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiac_pacemaker The nerves from the rest of the body are needed to tell these cells "we need more oxygen, beat faster" or "sleepy time, beat slower".
- mleonhard 5y agoCould a surgeon cut the nerves and pacemaker cells away from the diseased heart and implant them into the donor heart?
- tempestn 5y agoI assume if they could reconnect the nerves to the new heart they would. There's no need to replace the pacemaker cells in the new heart with the old ones though.
- pelagicAustral 5y agoFriendly reminder that the heart produces electricity; ergo, it can be used to mine crypto.