PARIS, Sept 8: British and US doctors announced today they had carried out the first permanent transplant of a revolutionary type of artificial heart, a thumb-sized pump that had saved a 61-year-old man from imminent death, reports AFP.
The tiny titanium device holds out hopes for millions of people around the world who have chronic heart problems, they said.
The US-made gadget, Jarvlk 2000, comprises a pump about the size of a "C battery and welghingjust 90 grams (three ounces).
The 100.000-dollar (115,000-euro) Invention docs not replace the natural heart. Instead. It Is attached to the left ventricle, the chamber thal gives the heart most of Its pumping power when It contracts.
In an operation in Oxford, southern England, on June 20. a Jarvlk 2000 was implanted in the chest of a 61 -year -old patient who was only expected to survive a few more weeks, the doctors said.
Within six weeks, the Jarvlk had sustained the patient's circulation, hls heart and liver func tions Improved, as did his ability to exercise enabling him to start living a normal life.
There were no more signs of heart failure, hls blood pressure went down but without any adverse effects, and there was "negligible" damage to blood cells from the pump.
Currently the outlook Is dismal for patients with end-stage heart failure who are not eligible for transplantation." die team. led by Ste phen Westaby. of Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, reports In Satur-
day's Issue ofThe Lancet.
Our laboratory experience and encouraging first clinical intervention with tills small, silent Intraventricular (device) suggests a potential alternative for many more patients.
The device seems to be suitable for permanent use, bridge to transplant, or bridge to recovery."
The artificial heart has had a chequered history since it was first usedin 1985.
Early optimism about these devices was dashed when the early models proved too big and cumbersome, their pump action causeci blood clots and infections developed because of tubes thal linked them to machines outside the body.
As a result, they only became used as temporary stand-Ins, to help severely ill patients survive until they got a heart transplant.
French and Israeli doctors. In separate ventures this year, have carried out permanent transplants on two elderly patients, using much heavier devices weighing 1.4 kilos (3.2 pounds) and 350 grams (10.25 ounces). The Israeli patient died less than 48 hours later, although the heart had functioned correctly.
The Jarvlk 2000 made by Robert Jarvlk, who made the Jarvlk 7, the first artificial heart Is the smallest artificial heart, harnessing advances In miniaturisation to avoid the need for external tubes or implanted batteries.
The pump pushes the blood around in a continuous flow rather than mimic the In-out action of the heart.
It lias a slender electrical power cable that goes up through the chest and neck to a titanium "pedestal" that Is screwed to the skull. In the hollow behind the left ear.
Hie cable then goes out through the skin, connecting to a controller and a battery about the size of a mobile phone, which can be worn unobtrusively on a belt or waistcoat.
The controller enables the pump's speed to be varied from 8.000 to 12,000 resolutions per minute, delivering a blood flow of three to eight litres (6.6 to 17.6 pints) per minute depending on the required exertion. The device can be switched off without risk for up to five minutes.
Three other patients wore given the Jarvlk 2000 temporarily while they awaited transplants, the Radcliffe Hospital's spokesman. Stephen Argent, told AFP.
The unidentified recipient of the June operation Is the first of six people In whom the < Janik 2000 will be tested as a permanent implant.
"We are very optimistic" about the Jarvlk 2000, he said. “We think It's going to saw mill Ions of I Ives around the world."
The institutions involved in the project are the Radcliffe Hospital: the Texas Heart Institute In Houston: Janik Heart Inc. of New York: and the Royal Brompton Hospital and National Heart and Lung Institute at London s Imperial School of Medicine.