Italian doctors have implanted the smallest ever artificial heart into a 16-month-old baby before the infant received a permanent organ donation, said the hospital that performed the operation.
"In March, the smallest artificial heart in the world was implanted at the Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome," Antonio Amodeo, a senior hospital official, said in a statement.
"The device, a titanium pump weighing only 11 grams and that can endure a flow of up to 1.5 litres per minute, was used in an emergency case of a 16-month-old infant suffering from dilated myocardiopathy with a serious infection of the ventricular assistance device that had been implanted previously."
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The artificial heart made it possible for the infant, whose identity and sex were not revealed, to survive for 13 days before the baby received a real heart transplant.
"At present, at more than one month from the surgery, the infant is in good health," the statement said.
