Question: can scientists create robotic organs and witch ones?

Alex Lyness answered on 23 Jun 2014:

Hey mee3megemel,

Scientists and engineers have been able to replace the jobs of organs with robots for decades! Using equipment such as the Iron Lung (used to help people with a nasty disease called Polio breathe), Heart Bypass Machine (which allows surgeons to operate on the heart and keep the patient alive at the same time) and Dialysis (which helps filter blood when people’s kidneys do not work properly). However, all these devices are big and clunky and not designed to fit inside a person’s body.

So I guess from your question you’re asking which organs can be replaced by mechanical parts? For that there are two examples I can give you.

The heart being one as it is a pump and there are people trying to replace it with an artificial heart, like this one here: This might be a better option that waiting on a organ donor list until it’s too late. NOt many artificial hearts have been transplanted yet. However, heart valves and pacemakers to help the heart pump blood better have been used for 40+ years and they are kind of ‘robotic’ and help replace lost function when hearts get worn out.

The other examples is the pancreas which produces/balances insulin levels when we digest food. For those who are Diabetic, often their pancreas does not do it’s job properly so scientists, engineers and surgeons are workin up new ways to automatically monitor levels of insulin and then dispense it directly into the blood. If they can get this right they could (theoretically) replace the pancreas with a ‘robotic’ organ.

There are loads of other examples of where bio-engineered parts are already transplanted into people for simpler bits of the body like joints, bone, skin, cartilage, etc. Organs are generally the trickiest though as they have many jobs and they do these in many different ways.

We’ll get there in the end!