A 56-year-old New Zealand man, a heart failure patient, is recovering in hospital after world-first surgery to implant an Australian-designed device which helps the heart pump blood.
The man, who has had heart failure for almost a decade had been considered unsuitable for a transplant and he received the device during a two and a half hour operation at Auckland City Hospital this week.
William Peters, the hospital's clinical research fellow in cardiothoracic surgery says the patient is up and moving about, and the device, which is like a little turbo booster on top of the heart which is definitely being well assisted by it.
Peters, who designed the C-pulse heart device with surgeon Paget Milsom, said before the operation, the patient had a very poor quality of life and a reduced life expectancy and he was already on optimum medication.
The man had frequently been in and out of hospital, had not worked for a number of years and had no other option other than to suffer as he had been doing.
Dr Peters says the key component of the device was a balloon cuff, similar to a blood pressure cuff, which was wrapped around the patient's aorta.
A sensing wire picks up the heart's electrical signals, allowing the device to time the inflation and deflation of the balloon to the heart beat. The balloon helps the aorta pump blood to the body, reducing the heart's workload. A wearable unit driving the device works on rechargeable batteries and a home unit is also available which can be plugged into an electricity outlet.
Dr Peters said the device was designed to be turned off occasionally without affecting the patient.
If it fails, the balloon will just collapse and deflate and as the heart and the blood vessels are all in their natural state they will just carry on as they would normally. Unlike other heart pumps, the C-pulse avoided blood contact, reducing the risk of blood clots.