July 26th 2021
The implant was performed at Hannover Medical School
Paris, July 26, 2021 – 6:00 pm CEST
CARMAT (FR0010907956, ALCAR), the designer and developer of the world’s most advanced total artificial heart, aiming to provide a therapeutic alternative for people suffering from end-stage biventricular heart failure, today announces the first implant of its Aeson® bioprosthetic artificial heart in Germany.
This new implant of the Aeson® artificial heart was performed by Prof. Jan D. Schmitto and his interdisciplinary Heart Team of the Department of Cardiothoracic and Transplant Surgery (Director: Prof. Axel Haverich) at Hannover Medical School (Medizinische Hochschule Hannover – MHH), in Germany. The MHH Hospital is a maximum care hospital with a nationwide catchment area, recognized for its quality research in several domains such as transplantation and regenerative medicine, infection and immunology, biomedical engineering and implants.
Prof. Jan D. Schmitto, Director of the Mechanical Circulatory Support and Cardiac Transplantation Program at Hannover Medical School, declared: “The implant of the first CARMAT TAH in Germany represents another milestone in the field of Mechanical Circulatory Support Devices. The extremely ill patient suffered from long-lasting congenital heart disease and was finally fulminantly decompensated. He was treated by extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy for many days before he received a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) plus aortic valve replacement (AVR) and a temporary right ventricular assist device (RVAD) a week ago. Based on persistent right heart failure which made the RVAD not able to be weaned, there were no other treatment options left than Aeson® in this specific situation. Therefore, we asked the CARMAT team to join our forces for this ultima ratio use in order to face that critical situation of our patient. Unfortunately, because of its terminally ill status and the extremely fragile clinical profile, the patient passed away in the postoperative course. However, we observed that Aeson® has been able to directly intraoperatively stabilize the hemodynamic situation of the patient and has also been able to cope with the high pulmonary arterial pressures. Overall, we have been impressed by the promising performance of the device and we are looking forward to include it in our portfolio to save many lives in the future.”
Stéphane Piat, Chief Executive Officer of CARMAT, concluded: “We supported Prof. Schmitto’s team in Hannover last Friday for the treatment of a young patient suffering from end-stage biventricular heart failure due to Congenital Heart Disease. Because of the lack of treatment options for this severe heart failing patient and taking into account the challenging management of his severe Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH), Aeson® has been identified as the last possible solution. Despite challenging hemodynamic conditions, our device was able to deal with this very high level of PAH. This finding could open new opportunities in terms of indication of use for congenital heart diseases. We continue screening patients in Hannover as well as in other centers in Germany which have already been trained in the use of Aeson®.”