Union Hospital

History

2025: Successful transplant of an ultralight 45-gram heart with magnetic levitation

In mid-April 2025, it became known that Chinese surgeons performed a unique operation to transplant a child of the world's smallest artificial heart with magnetic levitation. The procedure was performed by specialists from the Union Hospital of Tongji Medical College at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan (central China).

According to Xinhua, the patient was a seven-year-old Chinese boy suffering from end-stage heart failure. He was fitted with a magnetic levitating biventricular accessory - the smallest and lightest artificial heart on the market. The product weighs 45 grams and has a diameter of 29 mm.

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Фото: english.news.cn

The boy, known by the pseudonym Junjun, was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a myocardial dysfunction leading to heart failure, in May 2024. Later, the child suffered severe cardiogenic shock - an acute pathological condition in which the cardiovascular system is unable to provide adequate blood flow. It was not possible to find a suitable donor organ, and the doctors decided to install a specially created artificial heart. The operation lasted five hours, and after a while the boy began to breathe on his own.

According to doctors, the operation marks a breakthrough that could change children's cardiac care around the world. Childhood heart failure remains a global medical problem. In China alone, about 40 thousand children with such a diagnosis are hospitalized annually, and 7-10% of them urgently require a heart transplant. New generation artificial organs temporarily supporting cardiac function prior to transplantation have advantages such as low power consumption, increased battery life, and improved stability.^[1]

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