ARTIFICIAL

HEARTS
Why do people need artificial
hearts ?
For many different reasons, people can need a
new heart. New technologies can help us
overcome even the worst of problems. When
people need a heart translplant, they need to
wait for a donor for a heart that is a tissue match.

For years, scientists have been developing

artificial hearts. They have developed temporary
hearts that can support your natural heart until it
can be replaced. However, replacing your heart
permanently with a machine is still a long way off.

Since 2004, about 1000 people worldwide

have been fitted with a completely artificial
Artificial can also be used to give hearts. These artificial hearts need a lot of
a diseased heart a rest, so that it machinery to keep them working. Most
can recover. Patients have a patients have to stay in hospital until they
part or whole artificial heart
have their transplant
implanted that removes the
strain of keeping the blood
circulating for a few weeks or
months. However, the resources
needed to develop artificial
hearts and the cost of each one
mean that they are not yet
widely used in patients