An Australian man has become the first in the world to leave a hospital with an innovative titanium artificial heart known as BiVACOR, which serves as a temporary solution for heart failure patients awaiting donor hearts. After living with the device for over three months, he successfully received a human heart. Medical professionals emphasize the development as significant and cutting-edge but raise concerns about its functionality and cost. This case paves the way for further understanding of the device's implications in real-world conditions, potentially impacting future heart transplantation protocols.
"This is certainly an important development in the field," says Julian Smith, a cardiac surgeon at the Victorian Heart Institute at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
"It is incredibly innovative," says Sarah Aitken, a vascular surgeon at the University of Sydney, but she adds that there are still many unanswered questions about the level of function that people with it can achieve and the ultimate cost of the device.
"This kind of research is really challenging to do because it is very expensive" and the surgery involved is very high-risk, says Aitken.
"They weren't being constantly monitored by medical teams," says Rogers, who led the first trial of the device in the United States last year.
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