Saint Thomas Heart is proud to announce the successful completion of their first Total Artificial Heart surgery.

The procedure was performed upon a 28-year-old male patient who arrived to Saint Thomas with severe heart failure in late December 2018. Due to the severity of the patient's condition, the Saint Thomas Heart team determined the only chance of survival was to receive a total artificial heart transplant. The Saint Thomas Heart team implanted the Total Artificial Heart device on Thursday, January 10, 2019. The patient is recovering steadily and increasingly active.

"The Total Artificial Heart technology gives individuals who are too ill to wait for a heart transplant a second chance at life. As the first heart transplant program in Tennessee, we are proud to provide this valuable technology to patients," said Ashok N. Babu, M.D., Saint Thomas Heart Transplant Surgeon. "This device allows our patients improved mobility and a more active, higher quality of life."

The Total Artificial Heart (TAH) is a life-saving treatment option provided to individuals eligible for heart transplant surgery who have end-stage heart failure affecting both sides of the heart (biventricular failure). It is provided to patients for which a heart transplant is not immediately available. The artificial heart replaces both lower chambers of the heart (the left and right ventricles) and the four heart valves and occupies the space of the removed heart. It is connected to an external machine called a driver, which pumps and monitors the TAH. The TAH increases chances of survival, allows an enhanced quality of life, including discharge home, and prepares those eligible for transplant by restoring blood flow and optimizing organ function.

Saint Thomas Health was the first health system in Tennessee to offer SynCardia Total Artificial Heart (TAH) as part of their cardiac treatment services. Ashok N. Babu, M.D., serves as surgical director of the program and Kyle Stribling, M.D. serves as medical director.