San Francisco-based UCSF Health performed its first heart transplant for a patient who previously received a total artificial heart.
The 37-year-old patient was admitted in August with end-stage heart failure and received the mechanical heart weeks later during a six-hour surgery at UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center. He was discharged in September and underwent an eight-hour transplant procedure three months later, according to a March 12 news release from the health system.
The total artificial heart replaces both heart ventricles and serves as a bridge to transplant. UCSF Health has implanted four of the devices to date.
Cardiac surgeons Amy Fiedler, MD, and Jason Smith, MD, performed both procedures. Dr. Fiedler is surgical director of the heart transplant and mechanical circulatory support program; Dr. Smith is chief of cardiac surgery and lung transplantation.
UCSF said it also plans a clinical trial of the BiVACOR device that recently received FDA breakthrough status.
