Domestic technical textiles Industry Segment-wise consumption of ...

Artificial Heart
In India, about 20 million patients suffer from heart failure every year. The number of heart failures is
increasing by two million annually. About 20% of these patients die without medical-aid. The
artificial heart is intended for use in patients whose hearts have been irreparably damaged left and/or
right ventricles, and for whom, existing methods of surgical intervention and/or drug therapy are
inadequate. Heart transplantation is limited by availability of donor organs. At present, donor supply
limits heart transplantation to about 3,500 hearts globally every year.
There is immense potential for artificial hearts. However, the device is very expensive at Rs 34 lakh
and the overall cost of surgery as Rs 40 lakh. The cost of artificial heart is set to fall with
improvements in technology.
Artificial Lung
Totally artificial lungs are not completely commercial. However, heart-lung machines are available in
the market. The artificial lung device is connected to the heart’s right ventricle. It relies on the heart—
not a mechanical pump—to send blood through the lung, where it receives oxygen (and offloads
carbon dioxide) as it flows through the arrays of microfibers or membrane oxygenators. Oxygen rich
blood passes from the device into the left atrium and then to the rest of the body. The microfibers or
the membrane oxy-generator are the technical textile component in the device.
Globally there have been less than 300 lung transplants. Cadaver donation or donation from brain
dead patients is still the main source of transplants. The artificial lung does not have a market in India
as yet and the awareness is low. Also the clinical efficacy of this product is not proven yet.