An Australian man lived a record 100 days with an artificial titanium heart while waiting for a transplant from a donor. He had severe heart failure.
CNN reports that St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, Monash University in Melbourne, and the American-Australian company BiVACOR, which manufactured the heart, reported this.
The device’s ability to work for so long is a sign that the artificial heart could potentially offer a way out for people with heart failure who are waiting for a donor’s heart. The device is still being tested.
BiVACOR’s founder, Australian bioengineer Daniel Timms, who invented the titanium heart after his father died of heart disease, said it was “gratifying to see decades of work come to fruition.”
“The Total Artificial Heart has only one moving part, a levitating rotor held in place by magnets. The device is made of titanium and does not contain valves or mechanical bearings that can wear out. It pumps blood to the body and lungs, replacing both heart ventricles. Over the next decade, we will see the artificial heart become an alternative for patients who cannot wait for a donor heart or when a donor heart is simply unavailable,” said Professor Chris Hayward of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.
According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the world, claiming about 18 million lives every year.