A demonstration of the soft robotic sleeve in a pig. (credit: Ellen Rouche/Harvard SEAS)
A good squeeze can definitely get the blood flowing. But the firm, rhythmic squeezes of an inflatable robot, can keep that blood flowing.
The device—a silicone sleeve ribbed with inflatable tubes—wraps around a waning heart and provides extra muscle-power to pump blood. In early tests, the heart-snuggling sleeve restored blood flow in six living pigs after they had suffered acute cardiac arrest, researchers reported Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine. If the thumping tech passes further testing, it could one day help prolong the lives of people with heart failure, an affliction that strikes around 40 million people worldwide.
(credit: Ellen Roche/Harvard University)
It’s not the only device that helps weakened hearts to go on. But existing medical devices involve pumps and valves that carry risks of blood clotting and severe blood infections. So, an international team of researchers, headed by scientists at Harvard, set out to make a heart fortifier that doesn’t have to contact blood.
Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Source: Ars Technica – With heart-firming embrace, squishy device keeps blood pumping