LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A self-contained artificial heart was implanted in a patient this week at a Kentucky hospital, the first such experimental surgery at the hospital in more than a year. The patient, who was not identified, was in critical but stable condition after Monday's seven-hour procedure, a Jewish Hospital spokeswoman said.
The patient is the 13th recipient of the experimental AbioCor pump in an ongoing clinical trial by the device's maker, Abiomed Inc. of Danvers, Mass.
It was the sixth implant performed at the hospital by Drs. Laman Gray and Rob Dowling and the first since January 2003.
The latest recipient is one of two AbioCor patients currently living with the pump. The other underwent surgery in February at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston and is reported in stable condition.
The softball-sized AbioCor is powered by batteries and made of plastic and titanium. It has no wires or tubes sticking through the skin, unlike earlier mechanical hearts that were attached to machinery outside the body.
The Food and Drug Administration approved 15 AbioCor implants as part of the initial clinical trial, which targets patients with end-stage heart failure who are likely to die within a month.
All the other recipients of the AbioCor heart have died since the first one was implanted in 2001. Recipients lived an average of five months.
The company hopes to seek approval from federal regulators later this year to sell the device.
