Doctors from Kazakhstan announced a successful operation to implant a mechanical heart pump charged from a wireless network by an Israeli device. It is the first wireless device implanted in the human body to help the heart pump blood.
More than 50 years ago, doctors first implanted a mechanical heart pump, known as a ventricular assist device (VAD), into the chest of a patient whose heart could not pump blood on its own. Since then, the devices have saved countless lives. Now the technology has reached a new level: for the first time, scientists have managed to implant a device that charges wirelessly into the chest of a 24-year-old man from Kazakhstan suffering from end-stage heart failure. The operation was performed at the National Research Center for Cardiac Surgery in Astana, Israeli technology company Leviticus Cardio said in a statement.
Typically, the VAD is charged through a power cord that is connected to the device and exits from a hole in the patient's abdomen. The wire connects either directly to an electrical outlet to charge the device, or to an external battery.
Patients with traditional VAD should always have spare batteries on hand in case the one they are using fails or runs out. They have no more than fifteen minutes to replace the battery before the heart pump stops working. The opening through which the power cord is passed is, among other things, considered a breeding ground for infections, so patients should exercise caution when coming into contact with this area.
The wireless VAD does not need a power cord thanks to a charging system created by Israeli tech company Leviticus Cardio. The system consists of an inductive receiver coil, an internal controller battery, all of which are implanted into the patient's chest. On a single charge, the device can work for about eight hours, and to charge it, you must put on a vest containing an external coil, which charges the internal coil using electromagnetism. A wrist monitor helps monitor the VAD battery level, and an internal vibration alarm is triggered when low or serious malfunctions. In case something goes wrong with the wireless charging system, there is a traditional backup power option.
Nir Uriel, a leading VAD specialist who, however, was not involved in the development of Leviticus Cardio's VAD, described the device as a significant improvement in the patient's quality of life. Now a person can freely carry out their daily activities without worrying about connecting to a power source through a wire, and can forget about the need to be connected to the network for several hours. According to him, the medical community, cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, VAD coordinators and patients have been waiting for this invention for several decades.
According to the World Health Organization, 17.9 million people die from cardiovascular disease every year, accounting for 31 percent of all deaths in the world. These diseases, which mainly manifest as heart attacks and strokes, are caused by tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and alcohol abuse.
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