He returned home with a Titanium heartwaiting for an organ transplant. He is an Australian man, about 40 years old and with a serious heart failure. Became The first person in the world capable of abandoning the hospital with a device of this type and live with him more than 100 days. Until now, no other patient had been able to do so, so this could pave the way to a possible damping solution for people with heart failure who expect a donor of heart. But how exactly does Titanio’s heart work?
Titanium heart
Titanio’s heart, called Bivacor Total Artificial Heart (TAH), was invented by biomedical engineer Daniel Timms, founder of the Australian-American company that bears the name of this device, which we remember is still in the phase of evidence. Manufactured in titanium, it works as a continuous pump in which a rotor, subject by magnets, pushes blood into regular impulses throughout the body. A cable channeled under the skin connects the device to an external portable controller that works with batteries during the day and can connect to the electricity grid at night. Unlike other devices, which have many pieces that usually fail, Bivacor does not have valves or mechanical bearings, barely has a mobile piece and, therefore, can be less prone to mechanical wear.
The history
According to the doctors of the St Vincent Hospital of Sydney, Australia, where the operations were performed, the patient lived with a Titanium heart For more than three months (from November 2024) until he underwent surgical intervention to receive a donated human heart. This is the sixth person in the world who receives the device, but the first one who lives with him more than a month. The patient, according to experts, is recovering well and this last milestone could help research to better understand how people can live with this device in the real world and if it could be used as a temporary measure in the future. “This revolutionary procedure, carried out at the end of last year, marks a new era in the heart transplant and offers New hopes to patients with heart failure, “experts said. According to some cardiologists, as reports Nature Titanium heart It could even become an option permanent For people not suitable for a transplant for their age or other health problems.
The trials
The last Australian patient is part of an American essay led by Joseph Rogers, a cardiologist specialized in heart failure and president of the Texas Heart Institute of Houston, in which five patients between 40 and 60 years received last year an earlier version of Bivacor. In these cases, the device kept patients up to a month in the hospital, but was not designed to allow them to return home. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) American has now approved the extension of the rehearsal to 15 other patients, although it will have to work much more before this titanium heart becomes the type of treatment that the general public can access.
Article originally published in Wired Italy. Adapted by Mauricio Serfatty Godoy.
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