Soft robotic pump helps the heart beat
Scientists have imitated the special musculature of the heart, designing a sleeve which can keep failing hearts alive.
Worldwide, 23 million+ people are suffering from heart failure, meaning that the cardiac muscle cannot pump enough oxidized blood about the body, threatening people’s lives.
In many cases, doctors help patients by inserting a pump into the heart, but the surgery could cause problems. When the artificial pump gets in contact with the blood, infection may develop, causing the blood to clot. So, scientists from the US Harvard University and the Boston Children’s Hospital have developed a computerized robotic pump, which can be placed on the outside of the heart without getting in contact with the blood.
The scientists were inspired by nature’s own design, making the sleeve of a soft material with sections that copy the two outermost muscle layers of the heart. By pumping air in and sucking it out of small, flexible tubes around the heart, the sleeve can alternately contract around the organ and loosen its grip. The invention is intended to help patients, who are waiting for a donor heart or are in rehabilitation.