Heart with wireless charging
For the first time, a "bionic heart" with the possibility of wireless charging was introduced into the chest of a 24-year-old man
Dmitry Mazalevsky, Naked Science
Doctors from Kazakhstan announced a successful operation to implant a mechanical heart pump charged wirelessly by an Israeli device. This is the first wireless device implanted into the human body, whose task is to help the heart pump blood.
More than 50 years ago, doctors first implanted a mechanical heart pump, known as a ventricular assist device (VAD), into the chest of a patient whose heart could not pump blood on its own. Since then, the devices have saved countless lives. Now the technology has reached a new level: scientists for the first time managed to implant a device that charges wirelessly into the chest of a 24-year-old man from Kazakhstan suffering from heart failure of the last stage. The operation was performed at the National Research Center of Cardiac Surgery in Astana, the Israeli technology company Leviticus Cardio said in a statement.
Article by Yuryi Pya et al. The First Human Use of a Wireless Coplanar Energy Transfer Coupled with a Continuous-flow Left Ventricular Assist Device is published in the Journal for Heart and Lung Transplantation – VM.
Usually, the VAD is charged via a power cord that is connected to the device and comes out of an opening in the patient's abdominal cavity. The wire is connected either directly to an electrical outlet for charging the device, or to an external battery.
Patients with traditional VADs should always have spare batteries on hand in case of failure or discharge of the one they use. They have no more than fifteen minutes to replace the battery before the heart pump stops working. The hole through which the power cord passes, among other things, is considered a favorable environment for the appearance of infections, so patients should exercise caution when contacting this area.
The VAD, created by the Israeli technology company Leviticus Cardio, does not need a power cord thanks to the charging system. The system consists of an inductive receiver coil, an internal controller battery – all of them are implanted in the patient's chest.
From a single charge, the device can work for about eight hours, and to charge it, you need to wear a vest containing an external coil that charges the internal coil using electromagnetism. The wrist monitor helps to monitor the level of the VAD battery, and an internal vibration alarm is triggered when it is discharged or serious malfunctions. In case something goes wrong with the wireless charging system, a backup power option is provided in the traditional way.
Nir Uriel, a leading specialist in VAD systems, who, however, was not involved in the creation of the VAD from Leviticus Cardio, called this device a significant improvement in the quality of life of the patient. Now a person can freely do their daily chores without worrying about connecting to a power source via a wire, and for a few hours can forget about the need to be connected to the network. According to him, the medical community, cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, VAD coordinators and patients have been waiting for this invention for several decades.
According to the World Health Organization, 17.9 million people die from cardiovascular diseases every year, which is 31 percent of all deaths in the world. These diseases, which mainly manifest themselves in the form of heart attacks and strokes, are caused by tobacco use, unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity and alcohol abuse.
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