David M. Lederman, who led the team of scientists who developed the first artificial heart implanted at all - which, although they have had limited success, we must advance in the treatment of advanced heart disease - died on August 15 home in Marblehead, Mass.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, his son, Jonathan said.
Dr. Lederman, an aerospace engineer, founded a small company called Abiomed in 1981, hoping to prolong life by providing a greater degree of independence for the severely weakened heart patients waiting for a transplant.
Working with Dr. Robert Kung, chief scientific officer of the company, brought together a research team (including aerospace engineers by the way) who designed the AbioCor.
A grapefruit-sized device that replaces a sick heart, the AbioCor has no wires or pipes that pass through the skin. When implemented, a coil transfers power from the charging device and the skin from the outside. An internal battery and a controller that controls and regulates the heart implanted in the abdomen.
The AbioCor is very different from the first Total Artificial Heart, the Jarvik-7, designed by Dr. Robert Jarvik, who asked the tubes that carry the patient to a small compressor fridge which was implanted in Dr. Barney Clark in "University of Utah, December 1982.
Even this is the distinction between the AbioCor artificial heart and other plant, SynCardia, which is also powered by an air compressor outside the body.
Only 14 of the devices were implanted AbioCor, during clinical trials, 2001-2004, the longest surviving recipient 512 days. In comparison, the SynCardia with its out-of-body halter, has been implemented in more than 1,000 patients, with the longest surviving 1374 days.
One problem with the AbioCor is too big to be in many patients. Abiomed AbioCor II is developed, which is a third smaller than the original and designed to last up to five years.
However, the original device had a significant impact on cardiology. "Despite the fact that the AbioCor has not been used in a large number of patients, has paved the way for further development of fully autonomous artificial heart technology," Dr. Kathy point, a spokeswoman for the American Association Heart and director of cardiology services for women in St John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, said.
Dr. A. Lame Gray Jr., professor of cardiac surgery at the University of Louisville with Dr. Robert D. Dowling made the first AbioCor system in 2002, agreed. "The importance is that it was totally implantable and gave people a better quality of life," he said, adding that among the most recent is a left ventricular device, "which is widely used today as bridge to transplant. "
According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which manages the national transplant system, 3254 patients waiting for a new heart, and that the year 1045 was donated hearts. It was not possible to determine how many of those patients waiting for a transplant are compatible with devices that have been developed from the AbioCor.
When it was invented by Dr. Gray said: "Never's been a more sophisticated device implanted in a human being."
Dr. Lederman had a great vision for your business. In a 2003 interview with CBS News, said: "There is no reason that a person has died when his heart stops If the brain of the person and the body is in good shape, because people has died.? "
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