Press Release:

TUCSON, Ariz. – Feb. 3, 2010 – On Feb. 1 and 2, surgical teams from Turkiye Yuksek Ihtisas Hospital in Ankara, Turkey, Yeditepe University Hospital in Istanbul and University Hospital of Bordeaux in France, completed the first phase of certification training in Paris to implant the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart.

Assoc. Prof. Drs. Mehmet Ali Ozatik (right) and Seref Alp Kucuker, Turkiye Yuksek Ihtisas Hospital

“The CE approval of the new Companion Driver System in Europe has provided us with the supply of implant drivers we need to meet demand from centers around the world who want to become certified to implant the Total Artificial Heart,” said Mary Pat Sloan, Vice President of Global Training and Customer Support. “Once stable, Total Artificial Heart patients can be switched to the European portable driver and discharged from the hospital to wait for a matching donor heart at home.”

Turkiye Yuksek Ihtisas Hospital and Yeditepe University Hospital are the 2nd and 3rd hospitals in Turkey and the 47th and 48th in the world to begin training on the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart. University Hospital of Bordeaux is the 5th hospital in France and the 49th in the world to begin certification training.

• Turkiye Yuksek Ihtisas Hospital
  - Performs approximately 1,900 open heart surgeries each year, the
  
  

  Prof. Dr. Deniz Süha Küçükaksu (middle) with Erman Pektok, MD (left) and Halit Yerebakan, MD, Yeditepe University Hospital

  2nd highest amount performed by a hospital in Turkey. It is the only
  state hospital with active cardiac transplantation and mechanical
  assist device programs.
  Attended training:     
        o    Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali Ozatik – Chief Surgeon/
              Anticoagulation
        o    Assoc. Prof. Dr. Seref Alp Kucuker – Surgeon/Anticoagulation/
              Drivers  

• Yeditepe University Hospital
  - Only hospital in Istanbul with a long-term mechanical assist device program. The hospital’s state-of-the-art software allows patient vital signs such as EKG, blood pressure, respiration and temperature to be transferred from the hospital bed headboards to the personal
  computers of cardiovascular surgeons.
  
  

  L to R: Drs. Emmanuel Munos, Alain Remy, Laurent Barandon and Karine Nubret, University Hospital of Bordeaux, with proctor Prof. Pascal Leprince, La Pitié Hospital

  Attended training:
        o    Prof. Dr. Deniz Süha Küçükaksu – Chief Surgeon
        o    Erman Pektok, MD – Surgeon/Anticoagulation
        o    Halit Yerebakan, MD – Trainee in Cardiovascular 
              Surgery/Drivers



•  University Hospital of Bordeaux
  - Has performed more than 1,700 cardiac surgeries over the last three years.
  Attended training:
       o    Dr. Emmanuel Munos – Cardiac Surgeon
       o    Dr. Laurent Barandon – Cardiac Surgeon
       o    Dr. Karine Nubret – Anesthesiologist
       o    Dr. Alain Remy – Anesthesiologist