Here the artificial heart that you control via the Internet

A new generation artificial heart, controllable via the Internet, which allows you to monitor, in real time and distance, the patient's condition and operation of the pump that supports the heart sick. It 'was implanted for the first time in Italy at the Istituto Clinico Humanitas, Rozzano (I) by a team led by Ettore Vitali, head of the Cardiovascular Department. The patient, a gentleman of 65 years of Novara, ran a check in these days is well and returned home to his normal activities.

SEND DATA VIA THE INTERNET - The console that comes with this "artificial heart" (more correctly VAD, Ventricular Assist Device) allows the patient to connect to a computer to download the data and transmit them via the Internet. "This allows the monitoring physician at a distance - Vitali said -. It allows specialists to view real-time health status of the patient detecting pump parameters, monitoring the blood flow , the power used and the speed of the turbine. " The pump that is implanted at the apex of the left ventricle (subjected to greater load because it distributes the blood throughout the body, while the right supplies only the lungs) and re-entering the blood empties into the aorta, the main part of a system that includes a cable with the external batteries and a console that doubles as a charger for the batteries. Small , both to fit in your hand , light - weighs only 100 grams - and reliable, this VAD is a ventricular assist device for mechanicalsupport the ailing heartrestoring normal hemodynamic conditions and the proper blood supply to peripheral organs. Is more a hope for patients with heart failure . Not only a bridge to transplantation, but a solution that can ensure a good quality of life.

IMPLANTED IN 18 PATIENTS ONLY - To date, the artificial heart was implanted with telemetry in 18 patients worldwide who were enrolled in a clinical trial undertaken at the centers of cardiac surgeryBerlin and Brussels . Humanitas is the first Italian hospital to enter into this trial. Last February, just at Humanitas implanted the artificial heart was the smallest in the world. The patient in whose breast beats the next-generation VAD has had a complex medical history: the severe deterioration of heart failure would have required a heart transplant, however, prevented by the presence of a tumor. <The VAD implantation - Vitali says - the only solution was to allow the patient to recuperate after a long period of heart failure and a state of health that will permit a subsequent treatment of cancer. " It 'already being studied further evolution of this device. "Quick - says Dr. Vital - there will be a new console, equipped with a SIM transmit data continuously without need, as now, the base. It will always be in communication anywhere there is a cellular network. "