This third implantation of the Carmat artificial heart was carried out on April 8, 2015 in the greatest discretion on a patient who wanted to remain anonymous at the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital in Paris (15th arrondissement). The patient returned home after having followed a period of rehabilitation at the University Hospitals of Strasbourg. Unfortunately, eight months after the operation, the third patient implanted with a Carmat artificial heart died.
“He suffered from a combination of severe pathologies, in particularrenal failure, pre-existing to the implantation of the prosthesis ”, according to Carmat. The analyzes carried out did not show any implication of the prosthesis in the death of the patient. “The company is continuing the feasibility study” recalls the company in a press release.
The first implanted patient died on March 2, 2014, 75 days after his heart transplant. For this first trial, the researchers had set a period of 30 days before they could say that this trial was conclusive. The 30-day milestone was largely crossed, but the artificial heart suddenly stopped on the 75th day. The second Carmat heart transplant patient died nine months after his operation. Following circulatory failure due to a functional drift of the prosthesis, the artificial heart was replaced. But, postoperative poly-visceral complications set in, and the patient died.
Hope for the sick
The artificial heart of the company Carmat is a real hope for patients suffering fromheart failure. This cardiovascular disorder makes it impossible for the heart to contract enough to send enough blood to supply the whole body. People who suffer from it are constantly short of breath, tired and sometimes need to be hospitalized. In France, each year, heart failure is responsible for more than 32,000 deaths. This “definitive total artificial heart is not intended to replace heart transplants but to complete them by compensating for the lack of grafts and by responding to patients who are not eligible for transplantation», Recalls Professor Carpentier.
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