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 Gesù 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 fibres
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 litres 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.
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