University hospital does first Iowa artificial heart implant 

The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics has performed the first implant of an artificial heart in Iowa.

Hospital spokesman Tom Moore said Monday that the device was implanted last week and that the unidentified patient remains hospitalized. No other information about the patient is being released, though cardiologist Jennifer Goerbig-Campbell said the patient is doing well.

Goerbig-Campbell said the hospital is the 17th in the nation to be certified for implanting the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart. That is a temporary one, approved for use as a bridge to an actual heart transplant for people dying from end-stage heart failure affecting both ventricles.

There have been more than 900 implants of the device performed throughout the country.

?These are patients that without the implant, without extra support, they are at risk of dying while they wait for a heart transplant,? Goerbig-Campbell told the Iowa City Press-Citizen.

Officials say the patient must stay within two hours of the hospital in case a human heart becomes available for transplant.

James Davis, a cardiothoracic surgeon at UIHC who implanted the artificial heart, said that one of its most significant benefits is that it often allows patients suffering from biventricular failure to go home while waiting for a transplant.

?It does a great job pumping blood. It?s similar to a normal heart in terms of its capacity,? Davis said. ?In the past, in general, patients had to stay in the hospital waiting for a transplant. It is a big drain on the patient and the family in terms of being away. It is a big drain financially on the family and the hospital.?

There are about 2,000 heart transplants performed in the U.S. each year. But according to Davis, the number has remained static because transplants are limited by the number of heart donors, Davis said.

Doctors will decide in the next few weeks whether the Iowa patient can go home, accompanied by a portable pump for the implant.