On Dec. 2, 29-year-old Joseph Cox was discharged from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Medical Center with his new donor heart after 39 days of life with the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart. Cox was VCU’s 25th patient to receive the Total Artificial Heart and the 10th implant of 2009... read more
Last December, there were only two things 46-year-old Chuck Besen wanted for Christmas… a matching donor heart and kidney. This year, thanks to the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart and the dual transplant he received at University Medical Center (UMC) in March, Besen will celebrate his first Christmas at home with his 2-year-old son Dylan and his fiancée Jennifer Hokanson... read more
SynCardia Systems, Inc. announced today that MasterControl has been selected as the new quality management system for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). MasterControl also provides the quality management system for SynCardia Systems, Inc... read more
On Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, the surgical team from Ege University in Izmir, Turkey, led by Prof. Mustafa Ozbaran, head of the Transplant and Assist Device Program, completed the first phase of certification training for the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart in Paris... read more
On Nov. 16, the heart failure community suffered a tragic loss when Dr. Kenneth Baughman, a prominent cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, died after being struck by a car while out for a morning jog... read more
On Nov. 21, 30-year-old Vanessa Cirillo will celebrate her second anniversary of being bridged to heart transplant with the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart by riding in the 2009 El Tour de Tucson cycling race... read more
On Nov. 5, SynCardia Systems, Inc., manufacturer of the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart, announced it has submitted an application to the FDA to conduct an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) clinical study of the Freedom™ discharge driver, designed to power the Total Artificial Heart outside the hospital... read more
SynCardia Systems, Inc., manufacturer of the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart, announced today that Cleveland Clinic has performed the world’s first Total Artificial Heart to dual heart and liver transplant... read more
On Oct. 26 & 27, the surgical team from Rennes University Hospital, led by Dr. Erwan Flecher and Prof. Jean-Philippe Verhoye, completed the first phase of certification training for the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart in Paris... read more
On Oct. 15, SynCardia Systems, Inc., manufacturer of the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart, announced that its new Companion Driver System has received CE Mark approval to power the Total Artificial Heart in Europe... read more
On Sept. 22, SynCardia Systems, Inc., manufacturer of the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart, announced an exclusive technology licensing agreement with AorTech International plc (AIM: AOR)... read more
Over the last five years, Jim Hennigan has had four different hearts beating in his chest… the heart he was born with, two donor hearts and a Total Artificial Heart... read more
On Aug. 31, the life and accomplishments of Dr. Willem Johan Kolff, the world’s most prolific inventor of artificial organs, will be honored during the Kolff Memorial Symposium in The Netherlands, where he was born... read more
SynCardia Systems, Inc., manufacturer of the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart, announced today that European Total Artificial Heart patients now account for more than 50 years of living with the European discharge driver... read more
During 2008, 10% of people who were implanted with the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart received the device because they were suffering from rejection of their donor heart transplant... read more
For a year and a half, Andrzej Bielak lived as a self-described “half man, half machine.” Everywhere he went, he was accompanied by the “beautiful ticking” of the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart that kept him alive... read more
SynCardia Systems, Inc., manufacturer of the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart, today announced that it has raised $10.3 million in its Series D round of funding. Highway 12 Ventures led this round of financing... read more
On June 12, the Heart and Diabetes Center NRW in Bad Oeynhausen, Germany, performed the 800th implant of the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart... read more
SynCardia Systems, Inc., manufacturer of the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart, has honored the following transplant centers for achieving 100% success rates for 5 or more consecutive patients implanted with the Total Artificial Heart... read more
When caring for patients with a SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart, the role of the biomedical engineer is as important as the surgeon, physician or nurse. This high-tech career impacts the lives of many and is the subject of a new video series that debuted this month... read more
According to INTERMACS data recently published in SynCardia’s 2008 Annual Report, the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart has a bridge-to-transplant rate of 72% at 6 months... read more
On April 9, 45-year-old Chuck Besen was discharged from University Medical Center (UMC) after making medical history. He is only the third person in the world to receive a donor heart and then a kidney transplant on the same day after living with the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart... read more
On April 22-25, SynCardia Systems, Inc., manufacturer of the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart, introduced the new 12-lb Freedom™ discharge driver at the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) meeting in Paris... read more
On March 3, SynCardia Systems Inc., published a press release quoting a recent article in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation (JHLT) authored by Evgenij V. Potapov M.D., and the German Heart Institute Berlin (DHZB)... read more
On Feb. 1, Prof. Jan Gummert, M.D., joined the Heart and Diabetes Center NRW in Bad Oeynhausen, Germany, as the new Director of the Clinic for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery... read more
According to a recently published article in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation (JHLT) from the German Heart Institute Berlin, “right ventricular (RV) dysfunction develops in 20% to 50% of patients after LVAD implantation, leading to prolonged ICU stays and elevated mortality.” read more
For Medicare’s 2009 fiscal year, hospitals will be eligible to be reimbursed up to $53,000 more when they implant a CardioWest™ temporary Total Artificial Heart (TAH-t) than when they subsequently transplant a donor heart, according to a shift in policy by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)... read more
On Dec. 25, 2008, CardioWest™ temporary Total Artificial Heart patient Mr. Potiron left University Hospital of Nantes for the first time in more than a year to spend Christmas at home with his family using the European portable driver... read more
During the week of Jan. 19-23, the British Standards Institution (BSI) is performing an Onsite FastTrack Review of the European CE Marking application for the Companion Driver System... read more
