For the first time in the world an artificial heart was implanted, as a permanent replacement for a real heart. The artificial heart was implanted over the weekend in the body of a 64-year-old patient at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer in an operation that lasted 12 hours. The patient suffered from heart failure, and had been hospitalized for several months in a critical condition in the intensive care unit, when his heart was only functioning at ten percent of its normal function.
His condition continued to deteriorate, and due to medical problems, he could not be included in the list of transplant candidates. The operation was successful and the patient's condition is critical but stable. The heart is manufactured by the American company, Thermo Cardiology Systems, and the Center for the Development of Artificial Organs in Pittsburgh, USA.
The heart is smaller in dimensions than previously implanted temporary hearts. It is a heart that is ten centimeters in size and weighs 350 grams, while the other hearts weigh one and a half kilos. The permanent heart does not have valves like the temporary hearts, because valves can break down.
"We tested this heart on hundreds of calves, and we saw that the body can receive regular blood flow without any problem. Because there are no pulses, there are no heartbeats, but the blood pressure and all the other indicators do not change, so problems can also be detected in the functioning of this heart," said D. Rabbi Yaakov Lavie, the director of the heart transplant unit at Sheba who performed the transplant, Dr. Lavie added that the transplant was performed in the body of a patient who had no alternative, "the patient was in a condition "Critical, and due to another disease from which he suffers, it was not possible to transplant a real heart into his body. According to international conventions of doctors, the transplantation of an artificial organ that has never been tried on humans is allowed only by chance and there is no other possibility, and so it was in this case," said D. R. Levi.
Along with Dr. Lavie, Dr. Robert Kormus, director of the Heart and Artificial Heart Transplantation Unit at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where the artificial heart was developed, and Prof. Aram Smolensky, director of the Department of Cardiac Surgery at Sheba, assisted in the transplant.
(July 30, 2000)
Update, July 31 - 2000 Haim Shadmi, Haaretz
The condition of the 64-year-old artificial heart transplant recipient continues to be critical, and he
Not out of danger. He is hospitalized in the cardiac intensive care unit at home
Tel Hashomer patients, sedated and connected to a ventilator. in the hospital
They say that until now the artificial heart is functioning as expected, and they are waiting for an improvement
in the functioning of the other systems in his body.
This is an artificial heart designed to be a permanent replacement for the human heart. this,
Unlike the artificial heart that was implanted until recently, which is limited in time (4-3 years),
and is not a permanent replacement for the heart.
The heart transplanted into the body of the 64-year-old patient is defined as "an auxiliary device for the left ventricle of
The heart" – the chamber that pumps blood to the body. The right side of the heart continues to function
as usual. The transplant surgery was done by Dr. Yaakov Lavi, director of the transplant unit
Heart in Tel Hashomer, with the help of Dr. Robert Kormus, director of the heart transplant unit
and an artificial heart from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and Prof. Aram
Smolinsky, director of the heart surgery department at Tel Hashomer.
The patient suffered from a problem that prevented a human heart transplant, so it was offered to him at the hospital
Tel Hashomer to undergo an artificial heart transplant. According to his doctors, the patient came
For surgery in a situation where the other systems in his body were also on the verge of collapse.
{Appeared in Haaretz newspaper, 31/7/2000{
Updated August 1, 2000
The artificial heart transplant recipient at Tel Hashomer Hospital died today (Sunday). This, after his body systems collapsed. The transplant surgery was conducted five days ago
After the patient suffered from terminal heart failure. He was hospitalized in critical condition in the cardiac intensive care unit for the past few months and was not suitable for a human heart transplant.
At Tel Hashomer they said that although the artificial heart continued to operate without interruption and circulate the blood in the patient's body, the rest of the systems in his body did not recover.
The artificial heart that was implanted in his body was intended to be a permanent replacement for the patient's heart, unlike the artificial heart that has been implanted to date, which is limited in time (34 years) and is not a permanent replacement for a human heart.
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