The Texas Heart Institute and the company BiVACOR announced the successful completion of an operation to implant a human artificial mechanical heart. Such an operation was performed on July 9, 2024, as part of a clinical trial and under the supervision of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA); levitation pumps blood and replaces both ventricles.

Researchers call the mechanical heart a “bridge to transplant” for patients with severe heart failure (single or double ventricular). That is, it is a temporary solution and can be implanted while the patient waits for a whole donor heart. Additional transplants will follow the initial implantation at the Texas Medical Center, with four more patients to be enrolled in the study.

Texan The Heart Institute is excited about BiVACOR’s groundbreaking first mechanical heart implant. “As heart failure remains the leading cause of death worldwide, the BiVACOR solution offers a glimmer of hope for countless patients awaiting a heart transplant” said Dr. Joseph Rogers, president and chief executive officer of the Texas Heart Institute.

The BiVACOR mechanical heart is suitable for most men and women. Despite its small size, it can provide sufficient cardiac output for an adult male performing physical exercise. The mechanical heart has a unique pump design with only one moving part: a double-sided rotor on magnetic suspension with left and right wings located in two separate pump chambers. This creates a double-sided centrifugal impeller that pushes blood from the respective pump chambers to the pulmonary trunk and aorta. The mechanical heart has no valves or chambers, and the MAGLEV enables pulsatile output by rapidly rotating the pump rotor. Source