Artificial heart

However, being a ceramic, pyrolytic carbon is brittle and therefore once a crack has initiated, it will propagate through the material which will inevitably cause the mechanical heart valve to fail which will lead to dangerous consequences such as the death of the patient. This is highly unlikely to occur though because the increased ductility of pyrolytic carbon would make it difficult for crack initiation to occur in the first

Doctor William Beaumont discovered that gastric juices digest food by treating a gunshot patient who’s wound healed forming a hole. Nazis are bad. Nazis performed inhumane experiments on many people they deemed as “inferior”. The “Angel of Death” Josef Mengele was fascinated with twins and conducted many experiments on them because they were “natural controls”. In the 1930s, German medical schools led such experiments in eugenics and promoted the concept of the Aryan purity. Mengele performed experiments

The heart is the most complex organ in the human body and without it, the body cannot survive. If the heart does not respond the way its suppose to, it can cause major health altercations or even death. As time has progressed, technology has progressed as well. Scientists have discovered many procedures to help the heart stay in rhythm. Some of the most famous and common procedures discovered are the pacemaker and heart valve replacement. These procedures have become easier over time and are the

surgical replacement of the mitral valve. Many mitral valves can be repaired, especially if they leak from wearing out. When the valve is too damaged to repair, the valve must be replaced. Valves damaged by rheumatic disease often must be replaced. An artificial (prosthetic) valve is used to do this. Three types of prosthetic valves are available: Mechanical valves made entirely from man-made materials. Donor valves made from human donors. These are only used in special situations. Biological valves

prosthetic heart valves are made from biological tissues preferably that from animals like cows and pigs called bovine valves or porcine pericardium respectively. These biological tissues are sutured to plastic or metal frames to be held in position. Though, comparatively bio prosthetic valves lack structural integrity and last a shorter time, these valves are used in patients who shouldn’t receive a mechanical heart valve, like the geriatric patients with advanced CHF (congestive heart failure)

Defects in the valves of a heart can lead to regurgitation, and stenosis. Common symptoms include angina, shortness of breaths and heart failure. These defects affect the heart functionality. As a result, artificial heart valves are used to replace these defective valves. One artificial heart valve is the St. Jude Bileaflet valve. Long-term studies have indicated that the St. Jude Medical mechanical heart valves demonstrates consistent hemodynamic (flow of blood through the heart valve) performance over

to control the direction of blood flow through the heart. The opening and closing of these valves produce the heart beat sounds. When the heart beats, the valves close to keep the blood form flowing backwards. The heart beats more than one hundred thousand times per day. The valves must be able to flex, stretch and hold back pressure hundreds of million times in an average lifetime. The mitral and aortic valves are on the left side of the heart. These are most commonly affected by aging because

Americans have been diagnosed with heart failure” (Mancini & Colombo, 2015, p. 2542). Heart failure is a condition where the heart does not pump as efficiently; therefore, it does not meet the needs of the body. There is a growing number of heart failure patients each year. “More than 300,000 deaths per year are attributed to heart failure, and the annual cost to manage these patients is close to $40 billion” (Mancini & Colombo, 2015, p. 2542). Since the heart failure population is steadily growing

of the body systems? The artificial heart supports the body just like a normal heart would, pumping blood around the body. The artificial hearts are used when the original heart is damaged and needs time to recover. The artificial heart can replace the function of the person’s original heart for either a short period of time while a donor heart is being sort or for the duration of the person’s life. Why is the device needed? The device is needed when a person’s heart fails to operate correctly

the stage of medical advancements, though they are still in the early phase. Artificial organs have been one of those achievements. Although they have achieved such, artificial organs are not perfect. Most doctors as well as patients would prefer to replace a dying organ with a compatible human organ, rather than with an artificial or animal organ. Yet due to a there being less organs donated than recipients, artificial and animal organs are becoming more common in transplants. Most of this issue