the total artificial heart of the French company Carmat. – Carmat Aeson
- A 30-year-old person from Lille was able to benefit from a latest generation total artificial heart transplant from the French company Carmat.
- This device makes it possible to wait for the arrival of a human heart by reducing the risk of complications and increasing autonomy.
- The patient was finally able to receive a definitive heart transplant after living with this device for three months.
Three hearts in three months. The beginning of April marked the end of a long ordeal for a 30-year-old Lille resident, with heart failure, and a great French first for the Lille University Hospital Center (CHU). The first received an almost new heart and the CHU succeeded in an unprecedented transplant.
It was almost by accident that this patient discovered his heart problem. Tired of feeling terrible abdominal cramps while eating, he went to consult a specialist at the end of 2020. An initiative that saved his life: “We realized that his heart was no longer pumping at all. He was lucky, ”admits Professor André Vincentelli, thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon at the CHU.
A latest generation total artificial heart
Placed on the waiting list for organ recipients, the thirty-something still had to have an artificial heart transplanted while he found a human one. “The delays can be long because of the shortage since in France, the average is two recipients for a transplant”, affirms the professor. In his misfortune, the patient was lucky because he could very well have ended up with the old model of artificial heart whose weaknesses sometimes cause cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) and which requires lugging a compressor on a small cart .
“We were able to implant a total artificial heart in it, manufactured by the French company Carmat, which has just obtained authorization to carry out tests in France,” explains André Vincentelli. The advantages of this material are multiple: its biological valves exclude the risk of stroke and the device is electric and not pneumatic. It works on batteries that the receiver carries in a backpack allowing him to have between 4 and 5 hours of autonomy. This technological gem has a price: 150,000 euros. With assistance and supervision, but not counting the surgical operation.
Soon definitive artificial hearts?
Another big advantage is that the patient can resume an almost normal life after a short cardiac rehabilitation. “Not much is missing for this type of heart to be definitive. Work on the durability of the prosthesis and solve the problem of the power cable that crosses the abdomen, ”admits the doctor. When all this is resolved, the traditional transplant will no longer be really popular, especially because it still requires taking immunosuppressive therapy for life.
But as we are not there yet, the patient from Lille finally received a human heart in early April. “Removing the artificial heart and installing the graft required a large and multidisciplinary team. The operation lasted between 6 and 7 hours, ”said Professor Vincentelli. The young transplant recipient is doing very well.