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A man received the worldâs first artificial heart made of titanium, which kept him alive for several days before the transplant
A 58-year-old man in the United States has become the first person in the world to have his failing heart replaced with a temporary, titanium blood-pumper, just days before his organ transplant. According to doctors, the metal organ designed by medical device company BiVACOR â which is the size of a fist â can replace the full function of a flesh-and-blood human heart as closely as possible. Read on to know more about it.
Doctors said the patient survived on the prosthesis for eight days, after which he was given a donor heart â without any complications
A 58-year-old man in the US has become the first person in the world to survive for several days with a metal heart made of titanium even though his heart had end-stage failure and he needed a transplant. According to doctors, he was provided with an artificial heart made by medical technology company BiVACOR, which worked on the same scientific principle as high-speed magnetic levitation (maglev) trains.
Doctors reported that the patient survived on the prosthetic for eight days before being given a donor heart without any complications. BiVACOR co-founder Daniel Timms told the media, âI am extremely proud to have seen a successful human transplant of our total artificial heart.â
How does BiVACOR work?,
According to doctors, the BiVACOR heart â which is the size of a fist, works as a blood pumper that does not mimic the natural heartbeat and instead uses a single, magnetically levitated rotor to pump blood to the lungs and the rest of the body. This innovative design eliminates the need for flexible chambers or pumping diaphragms, resulting in a more durable and compact device.
Timms said the BiVACOR heart is suitable for most men and women and is capable of providing adequate cardiac output for an exercising adult male. The device is also designed in such a way that its only moving part does not contact any other surface, eliminating the possibility of mechanical wear. According to experts, the heartâs design provides adequate gaps for blood flow, which helps reduce trauma and provide a durable, reliable and biocompatible heart replacement.
The company says the device is operated by a small, portable external controller that protrudes through the abdomen.
Doctors say the artificial metal heart could help improve the chances of survival for people suffering from severe heart failure as they wait for a donor heart. âThe worldwide impact of a commercially viable, long-term mechanical replacement for a failing human heart would be tremendous,â the scientists wrote in the abstract of an ongoing clinical study testing the heart.
a medical breakthrough
According to scientists, the BiVACOR Heartâs breakthrough comes at a time when demand for heart transplants is rising rapidly as fewer than 6,000 transplants are performed annually worldwide. Doctors say heart failure is a growing global epidemic â affecting an estimated 26 million people worldwide, in which the heart muscles do not pump blood as well as they should.
The FDA has approved BiVACOR to be implanted in up to five patients with end-stage heart failure in 2024.
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