SynCardia Systems, Inc. continues to set records with the implantation of the year's 150th SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart on Nov. 26, 2013. With almost three weeks left in 2013, SynCardia projects beating the 2012 record of 125 implants by 35 additional Total Artificial Hearts, the most patients ever implanted in one year.
"The record we are setting in 2013 for SynCardia Total Artificial Heart implants nearly doubles what was then our 2011 record-breaking year of 81 implants," says SynCardia CEO and President Michael P. Garippa.
The new record includes the first patient in the Gulf South Region, the first Nebraska and Florida patients, an Indiana patient who became the 1,200th implant worldwide and the youngest patient, 16, ever to receive a SynCardia Heart powered by the Freedom® portable driver.
This year, the top 10 SynCardia Certified Centers averaged more than eight implants per center. Leading centers include EJK Duisburg, Germany; La Pitié-Salpêtriére in Paris, France; Ege University in Izmir, Turkey, and seven SynCardia Certified Centers in the United States, including Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and University of Rochester Medical Center.
The Nebraska Medical Center was a leader for implants by first-year SynCardia Certified Centers.
"Surgeons and patients around the world are recognizing the life-saving benefits of the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart," says Garippa. "The SynCardia Heart is becoming the standard of care for end-stage biventricular heart failure." Garippa joined SynCardia as president in July 2010 and became CEO, as well, in May 2011.
The SynCardia Heart is the world's first and only FDA, Health Canada and CE (Europe) approved Total Artificial Heart. It is used as a bridge to transplant to a donor heart. Similar to a heart transplant, the SynCardia device replaces both failing heart ventricles and the four heart valves, which eliminate the source and symptoms of end-stage biventricular (both sides) heart failure.
Unlike a donor heart, the SynCardia Heart is immediately available at 93 SynCardia Certified Centers. Thirty-five other medical centers are in the process of certification.
The Freedom portable driver, weighing 13.5 pounds, allows patients to leave the hospital to live at home and their communities. It provides them the freedom to exercise, comfortably sleep at home, enjoy a home-cooked meal and get out in the community, all of which help them get stronger for an eventual donor heart transplant.
CAUTION - The Freedom portable driver is an investigational device, limited by United States law to investigational use.
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