An Australian has become a medical wonder thanks to his revolutionary artificial heart. Man’s doctors reported This week, he was the first person in the world to be released from the hospital with an implant developed to completely replace the functioning of the heart.
Doctors at St Vincent Hospital in Sydney carried out the experimental procedure last November, installing the Bivacor Heart Total Artificial in a man with serious heart failure. Although man is not the first human to receive technology, he was the first to live with him long enough to be released from the hospital – more than 100 days. The implant acted as a bridge towards a typical heart transplant, which man obtained earlier in March.
Today there are existing implants which can fulfill some of the functions of a sick heart, at least for a while. But the heart of Bivacor – invented by the native of the Australian and biomedical engineer Daniel Timms – is designed to fully take the many critical functions of the heart. It is intended for people with terminal heart failure and is equipped with an external rechargeable battery that connects to the heart through a wire. The battery only lasts four hours at a time, although the developers hope that future iterations can move to a more practical wireless charger.
The implant has reached the first clinical trials, the sixth and most recent being a man in the forties of South New Wales. The five previous patients, all in the United States, only had the implant for a brief period before receiving heart transplants, short enough so that they were never released from their stay in hospital. Thus, the release of man and his more than 100 days of survival with the implant are both record achievements. He is now recovered well with his heart transplant played earlier this month, according to his doctors.
“We have worked around for this time for years and we are extremely proud to have been the first team in Australia to carry out this procedure,” said Paul Jansz, a cardiothoracic and transplant surgeon in St Vincent’s, said The goalkeeper.
Although the Bivacor heart is currently being tested as treatment to extend patient survival until they can get a donor heart, Timms and its colleagues finally hope that the device can become a lasting replacement of the heart and an appropriate alternative to heart transplantation. It is an objective that will not be easy to reach, since patients live During a median of 12 to 13 years after obtaining a given heart. But for the moment, the first progress is certainly encouraging. More and more patients should receive their own implants this year thanks to a Program led by researchers from Monash University in Australia.
“The total artificial heart of Bivacor inaugurates a brand new ball game for cardiac transplants, both in Australia and internationally,” the Guardian Chris Hayward, a cardiologist of St Vincent, who watched the health of the human health. “During the next decade, we will see the artificial heart becoming the alternative for patients who cannot wait for a donor heart or when a donor heart is simply not available.”
Artificial implants like the Bivacor heart are not the only emerging technology that could one day support or supplant the limited offer of donor organs. Elsewhere, scientists work in the development of genetically modified pig organs which can be safely tolerated by the human body.
