14 May 2013. The French company Carmat has been allowed to implant the artificial heart developed by them in four different countries. This will happen in patients who have arrived the end stage of heart failure and where no transplantation can be performed. These people are basically refractory. An LVAD is not usually given to these patients, as long as the LVAD has not yet received the status of “destination therapy.”
After 15 years of research the CARMAT has succeeded in developing an artificial heart which perfected as much as possible in the imitation of the human heart. They looked at the shape, volume, hemocompatibility (= the reaction of the blood on the material used), and the reliability of biological artificial valves. An important part is that it is a pulsatile artificial heart, as is the biological heart, the circulatory system with pulsating movements is driven by the veins, so that the pulse is felt. This is a clear difference with a LVAD which has a constant flow, whereby there is no pulse is felt. Read the full post here.
