Total artificial heart implantation.

This report details the implantation of a total artificial heart into a human being who survived for 112 days. Included are the criteria for candidate selection, the preoperative psychiatric evaluation, and the description of operative and postoperative complications in the context of the research subject's mental status over the period of his survival. Postmortem pathologic findings are reviewed. We summarize pertinent literature, including disordered behavior, postcardiotomy, and neuropsychiatric syndromes in hepatic, renal, and cardiac transplant patients.