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Title: why are artificial organs not a bigger buisness? Post by: jonatron5 on Feb 10, 2014 As a biology student in college. And a somewhat of a backyard engineer/enthusiast im pretty sure I could build a device at the very least to replace the heart. It honestly sounds trivial. I mean just make a pump that flows at the correct rate that is super stable and has multiple redundancies. The only thing that might be an issue would be how to power it. But you could get around that. Jeck if nessiciary have a plug on the persons chest.
I mean obviously thigs that are delicate like lungs would be very hard to artificialy achieve. The digestive track seems doable its just a matter of getting whatever you build to interface with the existing bile/acid/absorbtion systems Title: Re: why are artificial organs not a bigger buisness? Post by: claryan01 on Feb 10, 2014 There is a split between artificial organs and artificially growing organs. Both have made strides, there are actually many artificial hearts (one has a set up like a fan and the person would not have a heart beat), but most doctors agree that it would be healthier if we could grow new organs with the patients cells. This way it would be an exact match and would have no trouble with the body rejecting it.
Title: Re: why are artificial organs not a bigger buisness? Post by: Alexx on Feb 10, 2014 There are artificial hearts. For example, during a heart transplant, a device to temporarily replace the heart is used.
Although a bit complicated, there are ways to configure the correct rate and pump power. The real problem is that, for some reason, prolonged usage of the device usually causes problems (mainly infections). That is why the device currently can't replace the heart without a considerable risk. But it's something that can be done. Title: Re: why are artificial organs not a bigger buisness? Post by: jonatron5 on Feb 10, 2014 What about immunosuppresents?
Title: Re: why are artificial organs not a bigger buisness? Post by: Alexx on Feb 10, 2014 Immunosuppressants are being used after transplants to avoid an immune response and a transplant rejection. However, I'm not sure if the same happens with an artificial transplants.
Anyways, what I meant was infection by microorganisms. There are several other reasons why an artificial heart might cause problems. For example, I found this: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/tah/risks.html (http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/tah/risks.html) And as I said, artificial hearts can be used (with a risk), but if it's possible, living hearts are preferred as transplants. |