Skeletal muscle for cardiac assist.

Although current efforts at cardiomyoplasty have not produced the anticipated clear-cut benefits in cardiac function, replicable improvements in subjective function have resulted. Efforts at optimizing conditioning protocols, skeletal muscle strength, and timing of skeletal muscle assist devices should provide further improvements in cardiomyoplasty. Further work with alternative ways of configuring skeletal muscle for cardiac assist is extremely promising. SMVs, in particular, offer potential to augment cardiac function directly or indirectly powering pumps. Work in all these areas is in early stages, but the future is bright.