World's smallest artificial heart saves baby's life

[Hum]

(Reuters) - Italian doctors have saved the life of a 16-month-old boy by implanting the world's smallest artificial heart to keep the infant alive until a donor was found for a transplant.

The doctors at Rome's Bambino Gesu hospital said the operation was carried out last month and made public this week. The baby, whose identity has not been disclosed, was kept alive for 13 days before the transplant and is now doing well.

The baby was suffering from dilated myocardiopathy, a heart muscle disease which normally causes stretched or enlarged fibers of the heart. The disease gradually makes the heart weaker, stopping its ability to pump blood effectively.

"This is a milestone," surgeon Antonio Amodeo told Reuters television, adding that while the device was now used as bridge leading to a transplant, in the future it could be permanent.

Before the implant, the child also had a serious infection around a mechanical pump that had been fitted earlier to support the function of his natural heart.

"From a surgical point of view, this was not really difficult. The only difficulty that we met is that the child was operated on several times before," he said.

The tiny titanium pump weighs only 11 grams and can handle a blood flow of 1.5 liters a minute. An artificial heart for adults weighs 900 grams.

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[remixedcat]

Awww this is so sweet. But poor baby :-( all the best for the little guy!

[DocM]

A great job, but without a biological transplant there will have to be several more implants to gain capacity as she grows. Thankfully there is a lot of work going on to perfect transgenic pig, grown and printed stem cell hearts.

Pic of this one:

[Hum]

Shame they can't take her cells, and clone a normal heart.

[n_K]

Shame they can't take her cells, and clone a normal heart.

If they kept the placenta with the stem cells and if they figure out how to use the stem cells properly then in the future it will be possible.