Long-term experiments with the total artificial heart (TAH) are a source of valuable knowledge for later clinical application. Our observations result from 66 long-term experiments on calves and one goat ranging from 30 to 314 days, which have shown the main possible complications in the early period (one month) and later in the experiment. Problems until the second month of pumping concern the clinical pendant of the TAH as a bridge for transplantation, i.e. surgical problems, blood coagulation disorders, infection etc. Later problems are high venous pressure or arterial hypertension, infection with septic thromboembolization, mineralization of the driving diaphragm, etc., and are more closely comparable to the conditions of permanent clinical use of the TAH. Faultless surgery, device function and the regimen of pumping are essential factors in every long-term experiment, just as in clinical application. Infection is a threat throughout any experiment, as in clinical cases. The TNS-BRNO-VII/clin/80 TAH has been implanted in six patients.

Vacord Bioengineering Research Company Ltd Brno Czechoslovakia