| KAMPEN, Netherlands (Netherlands National News Agency) – August 29, 2007 - The Willem Kolff Foundation in Kampen will receive an artificial heart from the American manufacturer, SynCardia Systems, Inc. from Tucson, Arizona. The loan is to honor former Kampen citizen Willem Johan Kolff, pioneer of the artificial kidney and the artificial heart, said a Willem Kolff Foundation spokesman.
The CardioWest temporary Total Artificial Heart will be presented on Friday, at the annual Kolff Symposium, by a SynCardia delegation. 667 people in total all over the world have received an artificial heart as a bridge to heart transplantation.
The development of the artificial heart started sixty years ago with the now 96-year-old Kolff in the Kampen City Hospital. In 1943, Kolff invented the artificial kidney at that hospital. It was the start of his international career in artificial organs. The artificial heart was his second major breakthrough, on which he started to work in 1947 in Kampen.
Kolff left The Netherlands for America in 1950. In 1957, he invented the very first artificial heart in the world.
(c) ANP 2007 all rights reserved
About the CardioWest™ temporary Total Artificial
Heart
The CardioWest™ TAH‑t is a pneumatic, biventricular, implantable bridge-to-transplant
system for full cardiac replacement, taking the place of the failing heart in
patients at imminent risk of death. The device offers full circulatory support,
the shortest blood path and exposure to artificial surfaces, and the highest level
of cardiac output when compared with other artificial heart systems previously
tested. With the CardioWest™ TAH‑t, patients become better candidates for
eventual transplantation and have post-transplant survival rates equal to that
of non-device cardiac recipients.
About SynCardia Systems
Founded in 2001, SynCardia Systems is the developer of biomechanical cardiac replacement
and assist devices. Its CardioWest™ temporary Total Artificial Heart (TAH‑t)
is designed for severely ill patients with end-stage congestive heart failure.
The device serves as an in-hospital bridge-to-transplantation for patients at
imminent risk of death. SynCardia Systems is based in Tucson, Arizona and is on
the Web at http://www.syncardia.com.
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