PAVIA (2 June) – An artificial heart, completely produced in Italy, has been transplanted in a patient for the first time. The operation was carried out at Pavia’s “San Matteo” Polyclinic by a team of doctors led by professor Mario Viganò. The patient was a sixty-year-old man from central Italy, and the operation lasted from early morning until late afternoon. The patient, who was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, had been on the transplant waiting list for some time. Since the San Matteo team was unable to find a compatible heart muscle, they decided to use this new artificial heart, consisting of state-of-the-art mechanical and electrical components. The operation was 100% successful.

Paolo Ferrazzi, director of the Cardiovascular Clinical and Research Department of Bergamo’s “Ospedali Riuniti”, is the coordinator of the medical team that developed the device. He said, “Basic research began almost twenty years ago. Knowing that the first artificial heart, made in Italy, has been transplanted in an Italian centre is like seeing a dream come true.”

The device is called “BestBeat”, designed and produced by the Institute of Clinical Physiology of the National Research Council in Pisa. This is the third time that the device has been used in a transplant: the first two operations were carried out just over a month ago in Germany and France.

The device weighs 560 grams and is made up of an electromagnetic motor, a polyurethane envelope and a metallic plate, completely sheathed in titanium. It is able to provide a pulsating flow, generating a physiological pressure in the arteries, with the result that it can be transplanted in patients with weak hearts. This opens up new a therapeutic frontier since, conditions permitting, medical teams can use the device for treatment to recover cardiac functionality.