An artificial heart is a mechanical device that replaces the heart

Heart

The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...

. Artificial hearts are typically used in order to bridge the time to heart transplantation

Heart transplantation

A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplantation, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease. As of 2007 the most common procedure was to take a working heart from a recently deceased organ donor and implant it into the...

, or to permanently replace the heart in case transplantation is impossible. The first artificial heart was the Jarvik-7, designed by Robert Jarvik.

An artificial heart is also distinct from a cardiopulmonary bypass machine (CPB), which is an external device used to provide the functions of both the heart and lungs.