A Seven-Month Survival of a Calf with an Artificial Heart Designed for Human Use

A Jarvik-7 type of pneumatic artificial heart, which was specifically designed to fit the anatomy and hemodynamic requirements of human patients, was implanted in a calf in an experiment to test the hemodynamic performance of the artificial heart. The experiment lasted for 221 days, longer than any animal had ever lived without its natural heart, despite the fact that the calf increased its body weight to 171 kg. The calf showed typical signs of low cardiac output before its death, but the direct cause of death was intestinal bleeding. At autopsy, it was discovered that the low cardiac output was due to severe pannus around the left inflow valve, as diagnosed earlier by changes in the pneumatic pressure wave form.