Artificial Organs

COURSE CONTENT

Artificial heart valves. Blood pumps, extracorporeal circulation, ventricular assist devices, total artificial heart. Artificial blood vessels and stents. Tissue engineered artificial organs.

Introduction to the principles of biorheology, Flow of blood in capillaries. Anatomy and structural elements of the vessel. Anatomy and physiology of the lungs. Phenomena of oxygen and carbon dioxide transport from the lungs to the vessels. Biomechanical approach to the physiology of the respiratory system. Introduction to Artificial Lungs. Artificial oxygenators.

Anatomy and physiology of the kidneys. Phenomena of mass transfer to the kidneys. Biomechanical approach to kidney function. Artificial kidney, effectiveness of artificial kidney function, definition of hemodialysis.

Anatomy and physiology of the organ of vision, artificial retina, artificial vision.

Anatomy and physiology of the organ of hearing , Artificial hearing, hearing aids.

Keywords: Biomechanics, bioreology, artificial lungs, artificial kidney, hemodialysis, artificial hearing, artificial vision.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

This course is an introduction to the physiology of organs and biological systems and the mechanical behavior of the corresponding artificial organs. The objectives of the course are:

• To give the student of the Department the basic knowledge of the mechanical behaviour of the organs and biological systems (especially of the human body) using the principles and laws of physiology, anatomy and mechanics.
• Understanding the mechanical complexity of biological systems.
• Understand their functions in order to design an artificial organ that approximates as much as possible the corresponding function of the biological organ or system.