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French company implants artificial heart in human

A French company has successfully carried out its first implant of an artificial heart that can beat for up to five years, a year longer than the only artificial heart currently on the market.

Artificial heart, devised and designed by Carmat and engineers from EADS
Artificial heart, devised and designed by Carmat and engineers from EADS © Carmat/www.carmatsa.com
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Carmat, which developed the device, said the implant was performed on a man at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris on Wednesday, adding that the patient is awake and talking to family while being monitored in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

“We are delighted with this first implant, although it is premature to draw conclusions given that a single implant has been performed and that we are in the early postoperative phase,” said Carmat’s chief executive, Marcello Conviti.

The heart, developed with engineers from Airbus parent company EADS, is designed to replace a failing heart while patients wait for a donor heart.

Weighing about 900 grams – around three times more than an average human heart – the device uses sensors to mimic natural heart movements and is powered by external, wearable lithium-ion batteries.

Surfaces inside the heart that come into contact with human blood are made partly from bovine tissue.

In September, French authorities gave Carmat the green light to conduct human trials on four patients in three hospitals. The company also won approval to proceed with human impants in Belgium, Poland, Slovenia and Saudi Arabia earlier this year.

The patients selected for the trials suffer from terminal heart failure and the device’s success will be judged on whether they survive with the implant for at least a month.

Carmat estimates around 100,000 patients in the United States and Europe could benefit from its artificial heart, expected to cost between 140,000 to 180,000 europs.

Currently, an artificial heart by Carmat’s US-based competitor SynCardia Systems is the only device approved in Europe and the United States.

The longest a patient has lived with SynCardia’s heart is just under four years.

Below: a video simulation of Carmat's artificial heart.

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