The First Robotic Heart Successfully Transplanted In the USA

Picture Source. Duke Medical School. USA.

Apro. July 20, 2021 North Carolina; USA.

The artificial heart has four chambers and runs on external power.

The surgical team at Durham, N.C.-based Duke University Hospital, recently transplanted a total artificial heart (TAH) into a 39-year-old man who experienced sudden heart failure. Unlike conventional artificial hearts, this TAH mimics the human heart and provides the recipient more independence after the surgery, the university said in a press release.

The TAH has been developed by the French company CARMAT , and consists of two ventricular chambers and four biological valves derived from bovine tissue, ensuring that the prosthetic not only resembles the human heart but also functions like one.

The recipient patient, a resident of Shallotte, North Carolina, was diagnosed with sudden heart failure at the Duke Center and had to undergo bypass surgery. As his condition quickly deteriorated, however, traditional options, including transplant, became too risky. Luckily, the Center was one of the trial sites where CARMAT is testing its artificial heart after having received primary approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2020 to begin studies in the U.S. to potentially enroll 10 patients with end-stage biventricular heart failure.

The trial protocol, which the FDA signed off on, calls for an interim analysis of the first three patients after 60 days, after which the remaining seven patients will be enrolled if there are no major safety concerns, and the principal goal of the study is to determine whether the artificial heart implant is a sustainable option before transplant.

The robotic heart recipient, is now stable and being monitored at the hospital; the heart will continue to be connected to the Hospital Care Console (HCC) so that its functioning can be monitored. As part of efforts to lead a near-normal life, the recipient will have to carry around almost a nine-pound (four kgs) bag that consists of a controller and two chargeable battery packs that work for approximately four hours, before requiring recharging.

The device has already been approved for use in Europe but is only intended as a bridge to transplantation for patients who are diagnosed with end-stage biventricular heart failure and are likely to undergo a heart transplant in the next 180 days.

Importantly, the organ care system also allows transplant surgeons to measure the function of the heart before they transplant it to a recipient, allowing them to assess the organ’s viability. The system “replenishes the energy stores and you can see the heart beating,” Catarino said. “It’s not doing work, but you can measure the heart’s metabolic consumption, if it’s stressed or had coronary artery disease.”

The Duke Heart Transplant Program is globally recognized not only for its robust clinical volume but more importantly, providing outstanding quality and innovative patient care at the highest level possible. The successful implant of the CARMAT artificial heart represents the latest in a long list of accomplishments by the Duke heart transplant team aimed at further expanding the treatment options available for patients with end-stage cardiac disease.

Welcome, everyone to a new future of fully artificial technology transplantation and immune medicine research, that allows full acceptance of this type of technology in the long-term body.

Aeson by Carmat

Animation -Carmat S.A. - March 01, 2021.

Animation-Carmat S.A. - March 01, 2021.

Gustavo Ernesto Rodriguez De LiraFounder · IT Capital©

Referencias Periodísticas y de Investigación (Research References & Journal)

https://medschool.duke.edu/about-us/news-and-communications/med-school-blog/new-generation-artificial-heart-implanted-patient-duke-%E2%80%93-first-us - New Generation Artificial Heart Implanted in Patient at Duke -First in U.S. Autor: Duke University School of Medicine- Friday, July 16, 2021.

https://www.statnews.com/2020/01/16/heart-transplant-donation-after-cardiac-death/ -Donation after cardiac death’: New heart transplant method being tested for the first time in the U.S. -Autor: Shraddha Chakradhar -Jan. 16, 2020.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/cardiology/duke-1st-in-u-s-to-implant-new-artificial-heart.html - Duke 1st in U.S. to implant new artificial heart -Autor: Erica Carbajal - Thursday, July 15th, 2021.

https://www.healio.com/news/cardiology/20210715/first-north-american-patient-implanted-with-nextgeneration-total-artificial-heart - First North American patient implanted with next-generation total artificial heart - July 15, 2021.