Cardiac Patch for a Broken Heart

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Sunday January 22, 2006 @01:24PM from the better-than-a-bandaid dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "People who suffered from heart attacks or other heart failures often need transplants because their hearts are essentially non-functioning. But imagine what would happen if it was possible to engineer living heart tissues to fix these broken hearts? This is what bioengineers at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City are starting to make. According to HealthDay News, their patches for broken hearts are made of heart tissue grown in the lab. Right now, animal trials are just starting and it will take at least a decade before human trials begin. But when these living bandages are ready for cardiac care, they'll have the potential to save millions of lives in the world every year."

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If it's anything like a MS Windows patch... by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-22 13:32 · Score: 5, Funny

the heart will work again for a little bit, but other major organs that iteract with the heart will cease to function correctly, and the new patch will somehow allow the heart to be more vulnerable to viruses.
Unluckily by DyslexicLegume · 2006-01-22 13:35 · Score: 5, Funny

...patches will only be available on the first Tuesday of every month. Any severe heart attacks occuring between these so called "patch days" will have to wait.
Dick Cheney by Mike570 · 2006-01-22 13:40 · Score: 5, Funny

FINALLY, there's hope for Dick Cheney! Now if only they knew how to grow a brain for Georie.