Creation of a Self-Made Total Artificial Heart Using Combined Components of Available Ventricular Assist Devices

All articles of this category Background Heart failure is one of the most common causes of death in the developed world. Surgical implantation of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) can improve mortality in patients with advanced heart failure [[ 1 ]]. However, sometimes preservation of the native heart is not possible and a total artificial heart (TAH) has to be implanted. The reasons for this are mainly ventricular clots, massive ventricular infarction, cardiac arrhythmia, valvular regurgitation or intracardial communications [[ 2 ]]. Unfortunately, TAHs are not always available in cardiothoracic units and implantation of a biventricular assist device is often not feasible in these patients. We report on a self-made TAH using combined components of the extracorporal Thoratec (Thoratec Corp., Pleasanton, CA, USA) and the ExCor BerlinHeart (BerlinHeart, Berlin, Germany) systems.