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American Doctors To Implant Artificial Heart
An American on the brink of death soon will receive the first self-contained, mechanical total heart replacement in a landmark surgery experts hope will lead to new hope for patients with failing hearts.
Heart surgery teams at five hospitals are trained and poised to remove a diseased natural heart and install in its place an electric-powered pump designed to fit inside the chest with no wires or tubes sticking through the skin.
Officials of Abiomed Inc., which developed the mechanical heart, said Wednesday that the first surgery, no later than June 30, would proceed without prior announcement and that the patient's identity may not be released. Results of the procedure, they said, would not be made known to the public for at least 30 days.
David M. Lederman, president and chief executive officer of Danvers, Mass.-based Abiomed, said the company received Food and Drug Administration approval to perform at least five human trials with the artificial heart, known as AbioCor. If the experiments are successful, more patients could be added to the trial later, he said.
The patients selected for the trial must be suffering from a chronic, progressive heart disease expected to result in death within 30 days.
The goal of the experimental trials with the artificial heart, said Lederman, is to ``double the life span of these patients,'' to 60 days.
About 700,000 Americans annually die of heart failure. About half die suddenly, with no chance for therapy. Heart transplantation is the best hope for most of the others, but only about 2,000 organs are available each year, Lederman said.
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