Stopgap Use of Jarvik-7 Heart Proposed
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PITTSBURGH — The Jarvik-7 artificial heart may soon be implanted into patients awaiting human heart transplants at Presbyterian-University Hospital in Pittsburgh, a spokesman said Saturday.
Thomas Chakurda said the hospital and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have proposed that “the Jarvik-7 artificial heart be used as an interim device for those awaiting heart transplantation.”
“But both the hospital and the university stress that the final approval has not been granted by the hospital board of trustees,” he said.
The use of the device, which has already been implanted in four patients in the United States--two of them still living--and one in Sweden, would require approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
The medical school’s department of surgery has submitted the plan for use of the heart. Dr. Henry T. Bahnson, the department’s chairman, was unavailable for comment.
Chakurda said he does not know when the application was made to do the implants, when the board might act or when the heart might be implanted into patients.
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