World's First Artificial Heart Transplant on a Female Shows Promising Result, Gives Hope to Wider Variety of Patients

Cardiothoracic surgeons from the University of Louisville Health - Jewish Hospital and the University of Louisville performed the first-ever Aeson bioprosthetic total artificial heart implantation on a 57-year-old woman from Kentucky.

EurekAlert! reported that she is the first woman to receive the novel type of artificial heart, but all in all the third person to do so after two men who received the artificial heart in the past few months. The cardiothoracic surgical team performed the heart transplant on September 14, 2021, at UofL Health - Jewish Hospital.

(Photo: Getty Images)
A CARMAT employee shows an auto-regulating, bioprosthetic artificial heart at the company headquarters in Bois-d'Arcy, in the west of Paris on August 29, 2018. (Photo by BERTRAND GUAY / AFP)

First Woman to Receive Aeson Total Artificial Heart Transplant

According to Yale Medicine, more than 3,500 people in the US are waiting for a heart transplant. Most of them will wait over six months to get a new heart, but some will die before it becomes available to them. That is why breakthroughs in heart transplantation are important.

As EurekAlert! reported, the Aeson device under the Early Feasibility Study (EFS) sponsored by the French medical device company CARMAT is intended as a bridge to heart transplants. It solves the limitations of left-ventricular assist devices (LVAD) by pumping blood in both heart chambers.

Moreover, it contains pressure sensors that estimate the blood pressure and automatically adapt the cardiac output. It is totally transplanted as a heart replacement and powered by a portable power supply.

Cardiothoracic surgeons Mark Slaughter, M.D., and Siddharth Pahwa, M.D., who led the transplant, said that the Aeson artificial heart is compact enough to fit in smaller chest cavities, especially in women, which gives hope to a wider variety of patients waiting for a heart transplant and increases the success rate.

The Aeson artificial heart was transplanted into a 57-year-old woman who was suffering from severe biventricular heart failure after an eight-hour surgery. She is now recovering well in the cardiovascular intensive care unit of the hospital. A man also received a similar artificial heart last month operated by the same hospital.

Dr. Pahwa said that the varying pumping ability of the Aeson artificial heart increases its viability and improved performance to meet the changing blood flow needs of the body. Aeson artificial heart has been approved in Europe and has already been given to 20 individuals with promising results.

ALSO READ: Heart Transplants Success Has No Age Limit: 70 Years and Older Have Similar Survival Rate As Younger Patients

First North American Patient Implanted With CARMAT's Artificial Heart

In July this year, Duke University and CARMAT announced that surgeons have performed the first North American implantation of the bioprosthetic artificial heart.

The patient's name is Mathew Moore, a 39-year-old man from Shallotte, North Carolina. According to Healio, he was referred to Duke University Hospital due to a sudden diagnosis of heart failure that quickly progresses to the point where conventional options like transplantations were no longer viable.

Doctors removed the left and right ventricles before placing the artificial heart in place. Although it was a little challenging because the patient underwent prior surgery the previous month, doctors said that the operation went very well. Mr. Moore has been recovering well after the procedure. The team noted that the artificial heart can adjust itself so they do not spend much time adjusting it.