Historical Aspects of Mechanical Circulatory Support

The mechanical circulatory support (MCS) devices of today trace their roots to ex-vivo studies in the 1930s, the clinical application for the heart-lung machine in the 1950s, and the advent of the National Institutes of Health Artificial Heart Program in the 1960s. Since then, MCS devices have evolved from large positive-displacement pumps with limited durability and large control consoles to battery-powered continuous-flow rotary pumps with compact smart controllers that are small enough to be implanted in infants. The progress made in these devices has occurred as a result of federal and private funding leading to various technological breakthroughs by talented and dedicated interdisciplinary teams of engineers, scientists, and clinicians. While the current devices provide a therapy for advanced stage heart failure patients to routinely live five years or longer with an MCS device with a better quality of life, adverse events such as strokes and infections are still common. Further progress on the devices with specific goals to overcome these issues is needed to benefit more heart failure patients and realize the full potential of MCS devices