Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart.

Denton Arthur Cooley was an American cardiothoracic surgeon famous for performing the first implantation of a total artificial heart. Cooley was also the founder and surgeon in-chief of The Texas Heart Institute, chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at clinical partner Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center, consultant in Cardiovascular Surgery at Texas Children's Hospital and a clinical professor of Surgery at McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

An implant is a medical device manufactured to replace a missing biological structure, support a damaged biological structure, or enhance an existing biological structure. For example, an implant may be a rod, used to strengthen weak bones. Medical implants are human-made devices, in contrast to a transplant, which is a transplanted biomedical tissue. The surface of implants that contact the body might be made of a biomedical material such as titanium, silicone, or apatite depending on what is the most functional. In 2018, for example, American Elements developed a nickel alloy powder for 3D printing robust, long-lasting, and biocompatible medical implants. In some cases implants contain electronics, e.g. artificial pacemaker and cochlear implants. Some implants are bioactive, such as subcutaneous drug delivery devices in the form of implantable pills or drug-eluting stents.

An artificial heart is a device that replaces the heart. Artificial hearts are typically used as a bridge to heart transplantation, but ongoing research aims to develop a device that could permanently replace the heart when a transplant—whether from a deceased human or, experimentally, from a genetically engineered pig—is unavailable or not viable. As of December 2023, there are two commercially available full artificial heart devices; both are intended for temporary use for patients with total heart failure who are awaiting a human heart transplant.