Artificial heart transplanted in patient at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics

IOWA CITY – An Iowan in need of a heart transplant has received an artificial heart – a surgery that marks a first for the state.

Tom Moore, spokesman for University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, announced Monday, July 11, that the hospital successfully completed its first implant of the device, called the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart.

The device can be used as a bridge for patients awaiting a heart transplant.

Moore said cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. James Davis performed the surgery on Wednesday, July 6.

He could not release any details about the patient, including that person's age.

“This is very cutting edge and it's a big, big step forward for the University of Iowa and the state,” said Dr. Jennifer Goerbig-Campbell, a cardiologist in the UI Heart and Vascular Center.

With the system, the patient's own heart is removed and replaced with the artificial heart. Worldwide, more than 900 patients have received the implants.

The heart was approved years ago by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but only recently was a small portable pump available, called a Freedom Driver, that allows patients to go home while awaiting a transplant.

Goerbig-Campbell said doctors will decide in the next few weeks whether or not the patient is well enough to go home with the pump, which is under study at the hospital.

“We're very optimistic,” she said. “So far, so good.”

The patient will have to stay within two hours of the hospital in case a heart becomes available for transplant.

Each device costs $120,000 and is covered by insurance.

Until now, patients who needed a “bridge” of total heart support while awaiting a transplant had to stay hospitalized, sometimes for six months or longer.  At least four patients in the past three years at the hospital had to wait that long, with stays costing about $5,000 per day.

Those patients used a large external machine, called a ventricular assistive device, which is hooked up through tubes to keep their hearts pumping.

“While there are no promises a patient would go home, it's at least more possible now,” Goerbig-Campbell said. “We've had options before, but not options as good as this one.”

According to the Iowa Donor Network, as of last week, 24 patients were awaiting a heart transplant in Iowa, with 3,183 nationwide.

Not all are candidates for the artificial heart.

Davis has estimated the device could benefit three to six patients annually at the hospital, which offers the state's only heart transplant program.

Goerbig-Campbell said the hospital is the 17

^th

in the United States to become certified to use the artificial heart.