A second patient could be implanted with an artificial heart from the Carmat company in the coming weeks. “This will depend on the conjunction of the availability of a patient who meets the criteria and the end of the analysis by Carmat engineers and clinicians” announced Philippe Pouletty, co-founder of the company.
The first implanted patient died on March 2, 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.
Artificial heart: a short circuit
“There was a short circuit. This caused a cardiac arrest identical to that which can present a pathological natural heart. We are trying to understand where this electronic problem comes from and why” explained Professor Alain Carpentier, designer of the project, in an interview published this weekend in the Journal du Dimanche.
A detailed analysis is underway. “The prosthesis, its monitoring console, the supply of the prosthesis and the console, but above all the interactions between the organism severely affected by a patient with end-stage heart failure and the prosthesis are complex elements. 4000 pieces of information are recorded every second “.
During the three weeks which followed the implantation of the artificial heart, the patient, whom we know today thathis name was Claude Dany has recovered well. He could read, sit, eat. But suddenly his condition deteriorated. “The body has its limits. With its pathological past, its organism was like too worn out clothing. You repair it on one side, it lets go on the other,” explains the doctor.
