World's most advanced artificial heart, as good as real

Scientists have been working on designing a fully implantable artificial heart since early 1960’s.The first clinical application of a permanent fully implantable total artificial heart AbioCor was implanted in a patient during 2001. Some limitations of AbioCor were that because of its size it could be implanted in only 50% of the male population and it has life of 1 to 2 years.

On 27th October 2008, French professor and a leading heart transplant specialist Alain F. Carpentier announced that a fully implantable heart will be ready for clinical trials by 2011. It was developed by him and will be manufactured by Biomedical firm Carmat, and venture capital firm Truffle.

The prototype uses electronic sensors and is made from chemically treated animal tissues, called “biomaterials”, or “pseudo-skin” of biosynthetic, microporous materials. In order to resolve the power issue two options are under study that do not require wires crossing the skin because these pose an infection risk.

"The aim of this heart is to allow patients to go from an impossible life where they can do just a few steps from their bed to an armchair to a normal social life. They will even be able to run - although naturally not a marathon," he said.

Assuming French medical authorities give the go-ahead, it will be tested on around 20 volunteer heart patients within the next two and a half years. Given the materials and technology involved, it is estimated that each heart will cost around £120,000.