The heart has been used in three successful “bridge-to-heart transplant” patients with severe heart failure who are waiting for a donor heart.
Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix became the third U.S. hospital to perform a BiVACOR total artificial heart implantation as part of the FDA’s early feasibility study.
The first implantation was performed at Houston-based Texas Heart Institute in July and the second was performed in August at Durham, N.C.-based Duke University Hospital.
The device is made of titanium and uses a magnetically levitated rotor to pump blood, replacing both heart ventricles, according to an Oct. 11 news release from Phoenix-based Banner Health.
