PHILADELPHIA — A 74-year-old man has become the second American to receive an experimental heart machine that is capable of taking over the workload of the left ventricle.
The experimental device could be a long-term solution, unlike older systems designed to keep patients alive as they await transplants.
The device has no lines or cables protruding through the skin to power the device, giving patients greater freedom of movement.
Surgeons implanted the 3.2-pound mechanical device in the chest of Norman Paul, a retired bricklayer and carpenter from Mount Laurel, N.J., during a five-hour procedure last month at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Doctors announced the surgery at a news conference Thursday. Paul, who remains hospitalized in fair condition, did not attend. His doctors said he was eating and walking.
“He is quite a character,” said Dr. Michael A. Acker, Paul’s cardiothoracic surgeon. “He always has positive spin.”
In February, the device, called the Arrow LionHeart Left Ventricular Assist System, was implanted in a 65-year-old patient at Penn State’s Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. That patient, whose name has not been released, remains hospitalized but has shown steady progress, going outside and beginning physical therapy, a hospital spokeswoman said.
About a dozen patients have received the implants in Germany in the past 18 months, Acker said. Three or four have died, he said, but not because of device failure or stroke.
If the LionHeart proves to be safe and effective, it could benefit patients with congestive heart failure who are not good candidates for a transplant.
The LionHeart was developed by Penn State University’s Medical School and Arrow International Inc. of Reading.
It has a wearable battery pack that transmits power through the skin to charge internal batteries. The external pack can be removed for a half-hour at a time for the patient to swim or take a shower.
