Autologous Skeletal Muscle, an Alternative for Cardiac Assistance

Original attempts to use skeletal muscle for cardiac assistance were soon abandoned when the problem of muscle fatigue could not be solved. In the last 2 decades, better understanding of muscle physiology and the development of successful protocols of electrical muscle conditioning have given new impetus to researchers around the world to proceed in the effort to identify useful applications of skeletal muscle to support the heart. More than 100 patients around the world have undergone cardiomyoplasty, mostly for cardiac failure. While subjective improvement in symptoms was noticed in the majority of the patients, only recently favorable hemodynamic changes have been documented. The other alternative that has been pursued in the laboratory is the construction of skeletal muscle ventricles that, after conditioning and vascular delay, have been shown to provide significant cardiac support when used for diastolic counterpulsation or for right heart bypass in animal models.