The device is made of titanium and uses a magnetically levitated rotor to pump blood, replacing both heart ventricles. The artificial heart’s use is being studied as a “bridge-to-heart transplant” for patients with severe heart failure who are waiting for a donor heart, according to an Oct. 11 news release from Banner Health.
The first BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart implantation was performed at Houston-based Texas Heart Institute in July, with the patient receiving a donor heart eight days later.
The second implantation was performed in August at Durham, N.C.-based Duke University Hospital, where the patient received a donor heart 10 days later.
The patient at Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix survived on the artificial heart for “nearly a month” before receiving a donor heart, the release said.
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