Other

Sun Medical Technology Research Corporation

Seiko Epson Corporation

Toshio Mori

Kenji Yamazaki

Masanori Hori

Shunichi Yamazaki

Nobutaka Ito

Osami Miyao

Kouji Higuchi

Yukio Iwasaki

Haruo Iiyama

Hitoshi Adachi

Koji Higuchi

Akira Kojima

Keiichi Kaneko

Sakashi Kobayashi

Osamu Tagusari

An artificial heart has a driving section, a nozzle section, a pump section for insertion into a ventricle of a human heart, and a sealing section forming a seal for a driving shaft extending from the driving section for driving the pump section. A sealing liquid chamber filled with a sealing liquid is formed around the driving shaft between the sealing mechanism and the driving section. The sealing liquid in the sealing liquid chamber maintains the sealing mechanism in a liquid-tight state and lubricates the sealing mechanism, whereby blood is prevented from entering the driving section. Even if blood happens to enter the driving section, the blood is mixed with the sealing liquid and does not coagulate. Thus, the operation of the artificial heart is not suppressed.

Auxiliary artificial heart of an embedded type

Portable drive system for artificial heart

A skin button comprising a cylindrical core component secured in the subcutaneous tissue of the living body as passing through the tissue, the core component has thorough holes which pass through the subcutaneous tissue and let skin penetrating components be inserted which pass into and out of the subcutaneous tissue, the core component has a tubular component made of fiber base material consisting of biocompatible fibers on the rim of the part of the core component which contacts the living tissue. The living tissue grows into the space among fibers of basic fiber materials of the tubular component to securely hold this skin button in the subcutaneous tissue as well as to ensure prevention of bacterial infection.

Skin button

An apparatus for circulating a purge solution in an artificial organ has an ultrafiltration filter or reverse osmosis filter in a purge solution circulation route to inhibit passage of substances having molecular weights of 340,000 or more. A portion of the purge solution circulated by a purge solution circulation pump is passed through this filter to remove proteins that have mixed in the purge solution. The purge solution free from the proteins is supplied and circulated through the artificial organ. Proteins that have externally mixed in the purge solution can be prevented from coagulating and depositing on a seal mechanism and the like of the artificial organ.

Purge solution circulating apparatus for artificial organ

An artificial internal organ, such as an artificial heart, comprising a pump unit through which blood circulates and a drive shaft for driving the pump unit, the drive shaft having a shaft sealing system thereon. The shaft sealing system is supplied with a sealing solution from a sealing solution chamber and a sealing solution bag. The sealing solution is formed mainly of a physiological saline, which is loaded with a protease or several kinds of aminopeptides. When blood gets into the shaft sealing system, it is prevented from coagulating by these admixtures. Although blood in the shaft sealing system of this type coagulates in a unique mechanism different from a conventional one, the protease and the aminopeptides never lose their effects even in such a unique situation.

Sealing system of an artificial internal organ

Growing community of inventors

Chino, Japan

Toshio Mori