The first durable artificial heart implant was hailed as a success after the recipient became the world's first person to be discharged from hospital after surgery to implant the high-tech device, Australia's ABC reported on Wednesday.
The recipient underwent a six-hour operation in Sydney in November, where a BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart, a mechanical blood pump made out of titanium, was implanted into the man, who had been experiencing severe heart failure.
The Australian researchers and doctors behind the operation called the implant an “unmitigated clinical success” after the man lived with the device for more than 100 days before receiving a donor heart transplant in early March, according to The Guardian.
BiVACOR has been implanted in five other patients in the US since the first surgery in July 2024, but none of these five were successfully discharged from the hospital with their implants.
Transplant surgeon Paul Jansz said the operation gave him "goosebumps," ABC reported. "There were definitely nerves, especially when Daniel [Timms, who invented BiVACOR] flicked the switch and turned it [the artificial heart] on," Jansz continued.
ABC reported that Jansz referred to the invention as "the Holy Grail" as it cannot fail or be rejected by the body, as can occur with human or animal heart transplants.
BiVACOR's creation
Australian-born Dr Daniel Timms, CEO of US-based BiVACOR, designed the device.
The device works by using a motor with a special mechanism that avoids any wear and tear to pump blood around the body. It achieves this by using magnets to suspend the motor's rotor, ABC reported.
Timms stated that his interest was first sparked during his childhood when he tinkered with water pumps along with his father, who was a plumber. His father later died of heart failure, which, according to ABC, intensified Timms's "passion to complete the artificial heart."
This implant was the first in a series planned by Monash University's Artificial Heart Frontiers Program, a 31 million US dollar program (50 million Australian Dollars) funded as a grant from the Australian government to develop and commercialize three devices which will aid in treating heart failure, CNN reported.
Monash University’s Vice Chancellor and President, Professor Sharon Pickering, said "the Artificial Heart Frontiers Program is a shining example of the transformative innovation our nation can achieve when universities, industry and government come together."
Monash University clarified that the three devices include BiVACOR's Total Artificial Heart, a new type of Left Ventricle Assist Device (LVAD) that is implanted next to a natural heart to assist in it's natural pumping process, and "a wholly new miniature device, the Mini-Pump, that is implanted inside the hearts of patients who currently have no other option for treating their heart failure symptoms."
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death globally, killing approximately 18 million people annually, according to the World Health Organization.
In total, heart failure affects more than 23 million people globally per year, according to the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, who noted that "a proportion of patients will eventually require a heart transplant."
Given that the current availability of donor hearts per year is approximately 6,000, this is "a tiny proportion compared to the overwhelming need," the institute added.