Artificial Organs

            With all the controversy against stem cells and even organ donation artificial organs may be our best bet yet. Already electrodes implanted into the brain are helping to treat Parkinson’s disease, and now scientist are researching other means of using electrodes to help other parts of the brain. One-day scientists even hope that electrodes implanted in the brain could give instant intelligence.

Possibly one of our most vital senses hearing is a complex system of vibrations and electronic signals, but what to do when your hearing begins to fade. That’s when a new cochlear implant is on the way. Although it will not completely replace your hearing it will partially restore it. The implant works by bypassing the ear and stimulating the auditory nerve directly.

By far the most important organ in the body, the heart is naturally one of the first things we think of when we think of artificial organs. That is why in September 2006 the US food and Drug Administration is expected to approve its first artificial heart. Although it will not be meant as a permanent replacement heart it will be able to keep a patient alive until they can find a donor, and while the short lived heart has been approved an all new model is in development it is an artificial heart that doesn’t even have a pulse. One of the benefits of this concept is that it can be made smaller than other models before it. Because it has no pulse however scientist are not yet sure of the safety of this artificial heart.

The kidney is a complex organ. The very first artificial kidney was designed in the 1940s and the technology of it has been improving ever since. Although we have not invented an implanted kidney some scientist are turning to the prospect of bio-artificial organs in hopes of improving dialysis of the kidney.
 

For a person with diabetes a new device in France may take a large burden off their shoulders. The device works by using a half-inch sensor implanted in the neck that is connected to a hockey puck sized pump implanted in the lower abdomen. The neck sensor measure blood sugar and the pump send insulin into the blood stream.

With the short supply of organs and the problems with stem cell research more and more people may someday look at artificial organs as a good alternative for the real thing.