An Australian man has made history by becoming the first person in the world to survive for over 100 days with an artificial heart, made out of titanium. The patient, who has declined to be identified, was only the sixth person in the world and first in Australia to be fitted with the titanium heart, after experiencing severe heart failure.
The patient, a man in his 40s from New South Wales, received a device called BiVACOR, at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney last November in a six-hour procedure led by cardiothoracic and transplant surgeon Paul Jansz.
“We’ve worked towards this moment for years and we’re enormously proud to have been the first team in Australia to carry out this procedure,” Mr Jansz said.
After living with the device with no major complications, the man received a donor heart transplant earlier this month. Australian researchers and doctors associated with the medical marvel, announced last week that the implant had been an “unmitigated clinical success”.
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What is BiVACOR?
Invented by Queensland-born Dr Daniel Timms, BiVACOR is a total heart replacement device that acts as a bridge to keep patients alive until a donor heart transplant becomes available. It works as a continuous pump in which a magnetically suspended rotor propels blood in regular pulses throughout the body.
Meanwhile, a cord tunnelled under the skin connects the device to an external, portable controller that runs on batteries by day and can be plugged into the mains at night. Titanium has been used owing to its material properties of high biocompatibility, corrosion resistance, and strength.
Unlike other artificial heart devices which have multiple moving parts and often fail, BiVACOR claims to have only one moving part, which in theory, is expected to cause fewer problems of mechanical wear and tear.
While it is currently being used as a temporary measure, some cardiologists say that it could become a permanent option for people not eligible for transplants because of their age or other health conditions. Although, the idea still needs to be tested in trials.
Despite the success of BiVACOR, the functioning time span of an artificial heart remains significantly less than that of a donor heart, which is more than 10 years (or 3,000 days).
