A Heart of... Titanium

We are fast approaching a centry since the release of the classic film The Wizard of Oz, but who could forget the quest of the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman to find courage, brains and a heart?

Well, had they lived in our time, they need not have looked further than BiVACORa clinical-stage medical device company on a mission to improve the survival chances of patients with biventricular heart failure, which has all three to offer.

In a groundbreaking endevour that has taken considerable courage, brains and... a very unique heart, the US based company is carrying out the first-in-human feasibility study of a Total Artificial Heart (TAH) made of titanium, the results of which have made headlines around the world.

A design with a difference

The device itself is pretty impressive, made up of an electromechanical pump with a single non-contacting rotor. This unique design marks a major shift from conventional TAH technologies,which contain numerous flexible parts of different materials that are subject to wear and tear.

What makes their titanium heart so rinnovative is that it uses MAGLEV (magnetic levitation) technology, the same technology that is used to propel magnetic trains forward frictionlessly at astonishing speeds without touching the tracks.

It is this technology that allows the rotor to be magnetically suspended inside the device, pumping blood to both the lungs and the rest of the body, while reducing mechanical wear and tear and significantly increasing its reliability and durability.

The simplicity of the design also means that the heart weighs a mere 650 grams, making it compact enough for both men and women, while providing enough pumping power to sustain a grown man during physical exercise.

A hundred days of grace

The first successful transplant of the TAH of BiVACOR in a human being took place in July 2024a 58-year-old patient alive during the first week of the year. 8 days while awaiting the availability of a compatible human heart.

However, it has been the sixth procedure of this ongoing study that has once again capture the media's attentionwhen 40 year old patient survived for more than 100 days with BiVACOR's TAH, while waiting for the human donor heart that was successfully transplanted on the 6th of March this year.

Not only that, but he was doing so well with his titanium ticker that doctors allowed him to wait for the transplant at home , rather than in the hospital.

A life-saving advance

Around 26 million people around the world suffer from heart failure each year, and prevalence is on the increase. The demand for donor hearts far outstrips the supply, with fewer than 6,000 heart transplants are performed globally each year and limited to patients with severe heart failure.

Sadly, many patients die waiting for a transplant that does not arrive in time, so BiVACOR's TAH is much more than an impressive technological breakthrough: the extra time it provides could make the difference between life and death.

The positive results obtained so far have the team behind the titanium heart hope that it could even become a permanent option rather than just a temporary solution, in the future.