Key points
- The BiVACOR, total artificial heart, is developed by Dr Daniel Timms
- It is intended for patients with end-stage biventricular heart failure
- Over 23m people worldwide suffer from heart failure annually
ISLAMABAD: An Australian man with heart failure has become the first person in the world to walk out of a hospital with a total artificial heart implant.
On Wednesday, the researchers and doctors behind the operation announced that the procedure had been an “unmitigated clinical success,” with the man living with the device for over 100 days before receiving a heart transplant in early March, according to the Guardian.
The BiVACOR total artificial heart, developed by Queensland-born Dr. Daniel Timms, is the first implantable rotary blood pump designed to fully replace a human heart. It uses magnetic levitation technology to mimic the natural blood flow of a healthy heart.
Clinical trials
Currently in the early stages of clinical trials, the implant is intended for patients with end-stage biventricular heart failure, a condition that typically arises after heart attacks, coronary heart disease, or other illnesses like diabetes, which damage or weaken the heart to the point it can no longer pump blood effectively, according to CNN.
According to the Australian government, over 23 million people worldwide suffer from heart failure each year, but only about 6,000 receive a donor heart.
The government contributed $50 million to help develop and commercialise the BiVACOR device as part of its artificial heart programme.
While the implant is primarily intended as a bridge for patients awaiting a donor heart, BiVACOR hopes that, in the future, recipients may be able to live long-term with the device without needing a transplant.
Severe heart failure
The patient, a man in his 40s from New South Wales who had severe heart failure, volunteered to be the first recipient of the artificial heart in Australia and the sixth worldwide.
The first five implants were performed in the US last year, with all patients receiving transplants before being discharged from the hospital, with the longest wait between implant and transplant being 27 days.
The Australian implant took place on November 22 at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, during a six-hour surgery led by cardiothoracic and transplant surgeon Paul Jansz, .
The patient, who chose to remain anonymous, was discharged in February with the implant, and a donor heart was available for transplant in March, according to the Guardian.
Groundbreaking medical achievement
Jansz expressed his pride in being part of such a historic and groundbreaking medical achievement in Australia.
“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,” Jansz said.
Prof Chris Hayward, a cardiologist at St Vincent’s who led the observation of the man in after a few weeks in the intensive care unit, said the BiVACOR heart would transform heart failure treatment internationally.
“The BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart ushers in a whole new ball game for heart transplants, both in Australia and internationally,” he said. “Within the next decade we will see the artificial heart becoming the alternative for patients who are unable to wait for a donor heart or when a donor heart is simply not available.”
Great technological step
Professor David Colquhoun from the University of Queensland and a board member of the Heart Foundation, who was not involved in the trial, called the success a “great technological step forward for artificial hearts – bridging hearts – before transplant.”
However, Colquhoun warned that the artificial heart’s functioning period of over 100 days is still significantly shorter than that of a donor heart, which lasts more than 10 years (or 3,000 days).
He noted that, for this reason, there is still “a long way to go” before the artificial heart could be considered a viable alternative to a heart transplant.
Heart medications.
Colquhoun also pointed out that the number of people experiencing heart failure has decreased due to the availability of heart medications.
He explained that the peak death rate from heart disease occurred around 1967-68, when 47,000 Australians died from heart disease out of a population of 11 million, compared to 45,000 out of 26 million Australians in 2022, according to the Guardian.
This implant is the first of a series of procedures planned in Australia as part of the Monash University-led Artificial Heart Frontiers Programme, which aims to develop three key devices to treat the most common forms of heart failure.
