Surgery – Cardiac augmentation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-29
2001-10-30
Schaetzle, Kennedy (Department: 3762)
Surgery
Cardiac augmentation
Reexamination Certificate
active
06309341
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to artificial devices for assisting the pumping action of a heart.
Cardiac disorders often prevent the heart from being able to contract properly and pump blood through the arteries. One treatment involves surgically implanting an artificial pacing device with electrodes attached to the surface or inside of the heart. A controller of the implanted pacing device periodically sends electrical pulses to the electrodes which stimulate the heart muscle to contract and pump blood from the heart chambers. This pacing action controls the contraction of the heart thereby providing a natural pumping action of the blood.
Individuals with more severe cardiac disease may not be eligible for conventional pacing as the muscles of the heart have deteriorated so significantly that external stimulation will not produce sufficient pumping action. Treatment of these individuals may involve cutting away a portion of a ventricle of the heart and implanting an artificial pump in the opening. The artificial pump supplements the heart's pumping action. This radical solution often is the last option available for the patient, as it permanently removes part of the heart where the artificial pump is inserted. Typically this treatment is used only to prolong a person's life long enough to find a donor heart for transplantation.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a technique for artificially inducing contraction of a heart in individuals with significant muscle deterioration, where the procedure is less invasive and less radical than the surgical implantation of an artificial pump.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A general object of the present invention is to provide a technique and apparatus for artificially contracting chambers of the heart to pump blood in situations where conventional cardiac pacing is insufficient. This invention enhances the cardiac output of the heart.
Another object of the present invention is to utilize electromagnets to produce magnetic fields which cause contraction of the heart chambers.
A further object of the present invention is to utilize a plurality of electromagnets and control the application of electric current individually to each one so as to produce a controlled contraction which optimizes the pumping of blood.
These and other objectives are satisfied by a method for artificially contracting the heart in an animal to pump blood. A first magnet is attached on one side of a first chamber of the heart, wherein the first magnet produces a first magnetic field. A second magnet is attached on another side of the first chamber, wherein the second magnet produces a second magnetic field. In the preferred embodiment of the present method, both of these magnets are electromagnet coils which produce a magnetic field when an electric current is sent through the coils.
To contract the heart, the first magnet is selectively activated to produce the first magnetic field which interacts with the second magnetic field. That interaction generates a force which contract the first chamber of the heart.
The present method can be used to contract either one or both of the right and left ventricles of the heart. In that case, it is preferred to attach separate electromagnet coils to the exterior surface of the heart outside both ventricles. Another coil on a catheter is inserted into one of the ventricles and secured to a wall of the heart. Pulses of electric current are applied to the different coils to produce magnetic fields which generate forces that attract the coils to each other and contract the right and left ventricles.
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Denker Stephen
Haas George E.
Quarles & Brady LLP
Schaetzle Kennedy
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