抄録
Since Cooley proposed and proved the possibility of two-staged heart replacement in 1969 with an artificial heart as the first stage to maintain the patient's life till a donor heart becomes available, three clinical cases have been reported by his group to date. Patients were all male and their ages were 47, 21, and 36. In the second patient the heart developed stone heart after aortic and mitral valve replacement, and a left ventricular assist device was employed instead of an artificial heart. But the patient's entire circulation was maintained for five days. All pump devices were of pneumatically-driven type and their main materials were fabric-lined silicone rubber, flock-lined polyether-type polyurethane, and Avcothane, respectively. Duration of artificial heart pumping was 64 hours in the first case and 54 hours in the third case. The pump output varied from 3.5 to 5.5l/min. All patients eventually died of infection 32 hours, 14 days, and 71/2 days after cardiac allograft transplantation. When comparing merits and drawbacks of artificial heart and heart transplantation, both therapeutic means should proceed together using the artificial heart as a temporary life-saving device.
