Artificial organ
(Periodic rapid recharging of batteries, refilling of chemicals, and/or cleaning/replacing of filters would exclude a device from being called an artificial organ.
)[4] Thus, a dialysis machine, while a very successful and critically important life support device that almost completely replaces the duties of a kidney, is not an artificial organ.
Mechanical devices that allow amputees to walk again or continue to use two hands have probably been in use since ancient times,[10] the most notable one being the simple peg leg.
[15][16] Neural prostheses are a series of devices that can substitute a motor, sensory or cognitive modality that might have been damaged as a result of an injury or a disease.
[17][18][19] Scientists in 2013 created a mini brain that developed key neurological components until the early gestational stages of fetal maturation.
[20] To treat erectile dysfunction, both corpora cavernosa can be irreversibly surgically replaced with manually inflatable penile implants.
Cochlear implants bypass most of the peripheral auditory system to provide a sense of sound via a microphone and some electronics that reside outside the skin, generally behind the ear.
Thomas Cervantes and his colleagues, who are from Massachusetts General Hospital, built an artificial ear from sheep cartilage by a 3D printer.
The researchers said "The technology is now under development for clinical trials, and thus we have scaled up and redesigned the prominent features of the scaffold to match the size of an adult human ear and to preserve the aesthetic appearance after implantation."
Each year, thousands of children were born with a congenital deformity called microtia, where the external ear does not fully develop.
The most successful function-replacing artificial eye so far is actually an external miniature digital camera with a remote unidirectional electronic interface implanted on the retina, optic nerve, or other related locations inside the brain.
The present state of the art yields only partial functionality, such as recognizing levels of brightness, swatches of color, and/or basic geometric shapes, proving the concept's potential.
][26] Currently, scientists are limited in their ability to grow and print hearts due to difficulties in getting blood vessels and lab-made tissues to function cohesively.
[31] Reproductive age patients who develop cancer often receive chemotherapy or radiation therapy, which damages oocytes and leads to early menopause.
An artificial human ovary has been developed at Brown University[32] with self-assembled microtissues created using novel 3-D petri dish technology.
[9] The artificial ovary will be used for the purpose of in vitro maturation of immature oocytes and the development of a system to study the effect of environmental toxins on folliculogenesis.
Approaches include using an insulin pump under closed loop control, developing a bio-artificial pancreas consisting of a biocompatible sheet of encapsulated beta cells, or using gene therapy.
The polymer coating also keeps the hemoglobin from reacting with nitric oxide in the bloodstream, thus preventing dangerous constriction of the blood vessels.
The field of artificial tracheas went through a period of high interest and excitement with the work of Paolo Macchiarini at the Karolinska Institute and elsewhere from 2008 to around 2014, with front-page coverage in newspapers and on television.
Concerns were raised about his work in 2014 and by 2016 he had been fired and high level management at Karolinska had been dismissed, including people involved in the Nobel Prize.
[43][44] As of 2017 engineering a trachea – a hollow tube lined with cells – had proved more challenging than originally thought; challenges include the difficult clinical situation of people who present as clinical candidates, who generally have been through multiple procedures already; creating an implant that can become fully developed and integrate with host while withstanding respiratory forces, as well as the rotational and longitudinal movement the trachea undergoes.
