Thursday, May 24, 2012 Cardiomyopathy Children's Health Heart
TransplantationBy Antonio Denti ROME
(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. Amodeo said the baby had become family and
his team wanted to do everything to help him.
"The patient was in our intensive care unit since one month of age.
So he was a mascot for us, he was one of us," the doctor said. "Every day, every hour, for more than
one year he was with us. So when we had a problem we couldn't do anything more
than our best," he said. Doctors
said the device, invented by American Doctor Robert Jarvik, had been previously
tested only on animals. The hospital
needed special permission from Jarvik and the Italian health ministry before
going ahead with the procedure. (Writing
by Philip Pullella; Editing by Jon Hemming)
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