Researchers from Harvard University in collaboration with other institutions have created a robot that literally hugs heart to allow him to continue to pump blood.
Their research is a response to cons of traditional ventricular assist devices, which removes blood from the heart before pumping back into the aorta or pulmonary artery. The problem is that these artificial devices are in direct contact with the blood, which increases the risk of a clot.
The device created by a graduate student Ellen Roche and her mentor Connor Walsh does not come into direct contact with the blood, because it is made of a flexible material capable of "collaborating" with the complex rhythms of the heart. A silicon device is literally a kind of mulch that contains actuators that contract when filled their air.
When the device is placed around the heart, these contractions are used to help him continue to pump blood, and his movement can be controlled by adjusting the air flow.
The research team tested the device on the carcasses of pigs, synthetic hearts, and even a pig whose heart give up and hope to soon be able to try on the human participant, and to examine how we could reduce inflammation which may occur on the surface of the heart (which device has a touch).
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