Last spring we covered the announcement that the CARMAT hydraulic artificial heart is about to go to clinical trials. Now word comes our way that a team at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris has successfully implanted the first CARMAT heart in a human patient, and the recipient is awake, conscious, but under close observation in the ICU.
The CARMAT device is meant to be an end-stage solution rather than a bridge implant while the patient waits for a transplant. It is modeled on the real human heart and includes two functional cavities that mimic the motion of the ventricles. A hydraulically driven membrane positioned between the cavities moves back and forth, providing the pressure needed to pump blood through the body.
Here’s more about the CARMAT bioprosthetic heart:
Flashbacks: CARMAT Hydraulic Artificial Heart Set to Begin Human Trials (w/video); New Artificial (Carpentier?) Heart Going to Trial
Product page: CARMAT heart…
Press release: First-in-man implantation of CARMAT’s bioprosthetic artificial heart