Teen receives new artificial heart transplant in Rome

(ANSA) - Rome, February 24 - A 16-year-old girl in Rome was the first pediatric patient worldwide to receive a successful new artificial heart transplant, the Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital in the Italian capital said Wednesday.
    The teen, who suffered from severe cardiomyopathy, risked losing her life while she waited for a compatible human heart.
    A medical team at the Rome hospital implanted the new artificial device, called Heart Mate 3, on January 7 and four days later a human heart, after it became available.
    The hospital has reportedly implanted 60 artificial hearts since 2002.
    Almost 50% of artificial heart transplants in Italy in 2011-15 have been carried out at the Bambino Gesù, where the first permanent artificial heart was implanted in a pediatric patient in September 2010.
    The new device is still undergoing clinical trials in the US while its use was approved in the EU in October 2015, although only for adult patients.
    The hospital's medical team asked the device's producers, St Jude Medical, for permission to use on a pediatric patient this new model, which has a special magnetic levitation heart pump system.
    Heart surgeon Antonio Amodeo, who headed the transplant team, said the teen was dismissed from the hospital on February 1 and is doing fine.