SynCardia's CardioWest heart is the successor to the Jarvik-7 heart that was implanted in Clark, a Seattle dentist. He survived on the device for 112 days. Since then, hundreds have been implanted as a bridge to a heart transplant. Eighty percent of those implanted with the artificial heart have gone on to transplant. The longest time someone has lived on the device so far is 726 days.

The clinical trial will not be as complicated as the first one, because it's just a change to the driver, said Smith. But the positive experiences of patients in Europe with portable devices will only count as proof of concept.

Today, the CardioWest heart is about 30 percent smaller than the Jarvik-7, among other improvements. And the manufacturers hope to make it smaller still so that adolescents and smaller adults who could use the technology would be able to in the future.

The supply of donor hearts is small and, without a total artificial heart or one of the heart-assist devices, many patients wouldn't live long enough to have one, Copeland said.

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