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French Team Implants First Long-Term Artificial Heart

Posted by timothy on from the bunch-of-greedy-capitalist-heart-makers dept.

TrueSatan writes "Physicians at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris have inserted a heart made by the French Carmat company. The heart features bovine tissue components used to reduce the clot forming tendencies of fully artificial units and is intended to allow greater freedom of movement to the patient than previous, short-term use, units permitted. It is powered by external, wearable, lithium-ion batteries and is approximately three times heavier than a typical (European) human heart, though the manufacturer intends to reduce the weight and size of the unit so as to allow use by smaller recipients — in particular most women and men from areas of the world where average body size is less than white/Caucasian averages."

5 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Re:THAT'S RACIST!!! by dkleinsc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, -biological- differences between -biological- races (yes, races...) do exist - like the size of the heart, the dick... the brain!?

    In all three cases, it's not the size that counts, it's what you do with it.

    --
    I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
  2. Why stop with an straight artifical replacement? by Noishkel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Seriously... why try to replicate the original heart design when you could make something so much better? And why just ONE heart? What kind of engineer came up with this design? You'd do better to have MULTIPLE hearts pushing blood through your body. I'd have no less than three in me, if i had the option.

    I think that was an option in a CyberPunk book. Replacing the heart with a system of small blood pumps located throughout the body. That sounds good to me.

  3. Re: Medical innovations from damn socialists!! NOO by loufoque · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm French. France is definitely socialist, and so-called innovations happened in spite of that, not because of it. True capitalism is the best thing that could happen to France.

  4. Re:Pulsatile vs Pulse-less Designs by Cyno01 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I always found that split in artificial heart design interesting and analogous to flapping vs fixed wing in aircraft design.

    --
    "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
  5. Re:keep the original in good working order by sjames · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you want people to make better nutritional choices, you should support increasing the minimum wage and encourage shorter working hours. When people have enough time and money. they make better choices.