San Francisco-based UCSF Health performed its first heart transplant for a patient who previously received a total artificial heart.
The 37-year-old patient was admitted in August with end-stage heart failure and received the mechanical heart weeks later during a six-hour surgery at UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center. He was discharged in September and underwent an eight-hour transplant procedure three months later, according to a March 12 news release from the health system.
The total artificial heart replaces both heart ventricles and serves as a bridge to transplant. UCSF Health has implanted four of the devices to date…