People always give the advice to keep your heart out own your sleeve.

Only now, its a robotic sleeve, and it may have just started a revolution.

An elite team of clinicians and engineers from both Harvard in Cambridge M.A. and the Boston Children's Hospital in Boston, M.A, have revolutionized the technology used for patients with heart failure.

The invention: a soft, robotic sleeve that do the complete job of healthy ventricles.

What is heart failure?

For about 5.7 million people nationwide, heart failure occurs when the heart can not thoroughly and efficiently pump blood throughout the body due to inconsistencies in the heart's ventricles. They are responsible for twisting and compressing the heart enough to expel enough blood out to the rest of the body.

Heart failure has become an extreme problem in the United States, of the 5.7 million with heart failure, only about 2,000 lucky enough to receive a heart transplant each year. Many die from waiting on the list for heart transplants for too long, and the medical community is continually trying to find ways to extend patients' lives long enough for their transplant.

Up until this point, most patients have relied on VAD's, or ventricular assist devices. Much like a rotor, VAD's are placed closer to the outer extremities of the heart to help push the blood to the rest of the body.

Though VADs are heavily relied upon for heart failure patients, they do come with their down falls, their most notable one their need for their patient's consumption of anticoagulants due to the presence of a foreign body within their system. Anticoagulants, however, can increase the possibility of a stroke to up to 20%.

But never fear, the robotic sleeve is here!

Made strictly from non-rigid, biocompatible elements, the robotic sleeve sits around the heart and contracts its muscles in much the same the ventricles did, the most realistic artificial muscle created thus far.

There is no need for anticoagulants, and it significantly decreases the risk of infection, compared to VADs.

The robotic sleeve also has adjustable features, allowing physicians to manipulate the compression of the sleeve to fit a patient's specific needs.

Not only is it giving heart failure patients on transplant lists more time to wait for a viable donor, but in the long run, the robotic sleeve could ultimately be used permanently, reducing the need for heart transplants.

"This work represents an exciting proof-of-concept result for this soft robot, demonstrating that it can safely interact with soft tissue and lead to improvements in cardiac function."
Study co-leader Conor Walsh, Wyss Institute, Massachusetts

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