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.
“The medical, hospital and technical teams remain fully mobilized to continue to ensure good medical monitoring”, specified the University Hospitals of Strasbourg (HUS) and the Carmat 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 patient a heart transplant recipient Carmat 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 from the Carmat company is a real hope for patients suffering from heart 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 Pr Carpentier.
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