With the demand for heart transplants on the rise and the amount of available donors still insufficient, doctors are relying more and more on alternative methods of aiding patients.

Doctors at the University of Arizona's Sarver Heart Center yesterday implanted another patient at UA with a Novacor brand artificial heart, one of the options available today as a temporary or permanent alternative to heart transplants.

The implant was the 45th for doctors at Sarver Heart Center. The first happened in 1988.

"We want to draw attention to how well a patient can look, do, how independent he can be, and what kind of quality of life he can have with an artificial heart in place," said Dr. Jack Copeland, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at UA.

The Novacor heart is an electrically powered pump that is implanted into the abdomen to do the work of the patient's left ventricle, the part of the heart responsible for most of the pumping.

The battery pack and the controller for the device are outside of the body, and the patient carries them in a pouch over his shoulder. The patient's heartbeat rhythm is audible through the external device, and the controller directly responds to changes in the patient's circulation, speeding up or slowing down when needed.

William Lewis, a 72-year old recipient of a Novacor heart, said that with the implant, he "can do almost everything" he did before he was stricken by heart disease a few years ago.

When Lewis went to Copeland last year, he was too sick to be considered for a transplant. "He had shortness of breath, he was fatigued all the time, and he just didn't have any life," said Bettie Lewis, his wife. "He was deteriorating daily, and the medication was not doing any good."

Since Lewis received the implant six months ago, "there's been a huge change," Copeland said. "His whole body has just changed tremendously on this device."

Though artificial hearts aren't as successful in patients as human heart transplants, they are still a viable alternative for patients who are ineligible for the transplant list due to age or disease.

"Before the last couple of years, artificial hearts were used as a stop-gap measure to bridge people to heart transplantation. More and more now, we're seeing artificial hearts being used for longer-term applications," Copeland said.

"We want to show that this is a beneficial thing and people can live outside the hospital with it," he said.

Now Lewis is healthy enough to be a transplant candidate. And even with the improved health and lifestyle the artificial heart has brought him, he wants a transplant, and is awaiting a donation along with thousands of other Americans suffering from heart disease.

Soon, artificial hearts may be used as a more permanent solution for heart disease patients. "We're sort of in the infancy of artificial heart devices right now, and we're beginning to overcome some of the major problems," Copeland said.

"More and more people are coming to us with heart failure, and there really aren't enough donor hearts available. Due to the limitation of donors, there is a real growing need for these (artificial hearts)," he said.