Though a growing number of surgeons are learning how to transplant hearts, the operation seems destined to remain a rarity because donors are scarce and the problem of tissue rejection is still unsolved. Therefore, researchers have been working for more than a decade to develop an implantable artificial heart. Last week, Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz, the surgical pioneer who performed the first heart transplant in the U.S., moved the effort a significant step forward. In Detroit's Sinai Hospital, he put an artificial heart booster into the chest of Haskell Shanks, 63, whose heart was so weakened that it could not pump enough...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
