Advantages and Disadvantages of two Artificial Hearts

Essay by XixCrAzYfOoLxiXJunior High, 8th gradeA, October 2014

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Advantages and Dis-advantages of two Artificial Hearts

The first heart is an AbioCor; it is a heart shaped device that is designed to fit into the patient's chest. It runs on an external battery and provides a short term extension to critically ill people with heart diseases; it is designed to double a patient's life from 30 days to 60 days, the AbioCor is only applicable when the patient cannot have a transplant or have 30 days or less to live.

The artificial heart itself weighs only 1 KG and is made from titanium and polymers. The heart provides mobility that heart 2 (Berlin heart) cannot provide. Normally a critically ill heart patient is bed-bound but with AbioCor the patient is free to do a number of tasks, this greatly increases the quality of life, and is something that the Berlin Heart cannot do as the patient is bed-bound until a heart transplant becomes available, there is a single tube connecting a battery supply to the heart and the battery pack is worn externally, the risk of infection is greatly reduced, the berlin heart consists of 4 tubes extending out of the patient's chest, this greatly increases the risk for infection and is something that the AbioCor doesn't have.

The main disadvantages of heart 1 (AbioCor) are that this heart is only a temporary one, obviously the quality of life is much better and the risk of illnesses related to the heart is greatly reduced. The heart is only being used on patients that cannot have a transplant, this is very different from the other heart as it provides a large amount of time and can keep a patient alive for a long time (The record being just over 8 months.) The berlin heart gives...