It's been 30 years since the first successful artificial heart implant. Southern Indiana patient Bill Schroeder received the device in 1984 at the former Humana Hospital in Louisville. He died in August 1986.
Gill Heart Institute Surgical Director Dr. Mike Sekela says much has changed since then. Sekela says today, much smaller devices are implanted. "You can support one side of the heart, the right side or the left side with small devices and these devices now are extremely small," said Sekela.? "So you can do the same job that a total artificial heart would do with much less trauma to the patient."
Sekela envisions a time when the small heart assisting devices can be used as a permanent implant. "I could see a time in the future when we would use those very small devices as permanent implants, essentially being an artificial heart, but without having to remove the patient's own heart to put them in," added Sekela.
The small heart assist devices today are typically used to support the patient until a heart transplant operation can be performed.?
