The world’s first implant for treating children with heart diseases has passed the tests

Russian scientists have successfully completed laboratory tests of the world's first implant for treating children with serious heart conditions, including congenital heart disease. Dmitry Telyshev, the study author, Senior Scientist of the Institute of Biomedical System MIET and the Director of the Institute of Bionic Technologies and Engineering of Sechenov University, said that to enter clinical practice, the developers are to register the heart-restoring implant before the end of the year.

"The implant is designed for minimum 8-years-old and 14-kilograms-weight children, who suffer from heart diseases, cardiomyopathy (heart muscle damage) and other serious heart conditions. Currently the laboratory tests are completed, entering the phase of preclinical tests to register the implant as a medical device and allow us to deploy it into clinical practice. We plan to complete the tests by the end of 2019," - Dmitry Telyshev said.

For now, the children with heart diseases and other conditions in which their heart fails to pump the necessary amount of blood have two treatment options. The first one is medication, but it is ineffective since there are no drugs that could substantially improve the heart muscle functionality. The second option is a heart transplant. However, in Russia, unlike Europe and the United States, organ transplantation is prohibited for children.

The Scientists of the National Research University of Electronic Technology, Sechenov University and Bakulev Scientific Center of Cardiovascular Surgery have been developing an alternative treatment option since 2015. The proposed implant is a pump or a turbine made of a biocompatible titanium-based alloy, part of which is printed on a bioprinter. The device is implantable in the chest cavity of the child, where it takes some of the blood from the left heart ventricle and delivers it to the aorta through the heart channel.

"As a result, the heart functionality recovers. According to the most conservative estimates, such a device will see an annual demand for 2000 children in Russia. The total cost of the device including implantation amounts to 1.5 million rubles. There are no such implants (namely for children), in the entire world", – Dmitry Telyshev said.

The serial production of the implant is to be carried out by the Zelenograd Innovation-Technology Center (Moscow).