WUHAN, China: Chinese doctors have successfully implanted the world’s smallest and lightest artificial heart into a seven-year-old boy suffering from end-stage heart failure.
He is the youngest patient globally to receive a magnetically levitated biventricular assist device.
The surgery, performed earlier this month at Union Hospital, affiliated with Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, central China, represents a major breakthrough in pediatric cardiac care, doctors announced on Tuesday.
The young patient, referred to by the pseudonym Junjun, received a newly developed magnetically levitated artificial heart that weighs only 45 grams and measures 2.9 centimetres in diameter.
Junjun was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy in May 2024 and later experienced severe cardiogenic shock.
Due to challenges in finding a compatible donor heart matching his O blood type, doctors opted for an innovative, domestically developed artificial heart.
A team led by heart surgeon Dong Nianguo conducted the five-hour surgery. Junjun started breathing on his own the next day, and his heart function is steadily improving, doctors said.
“Thanks to the doctors, our child now has a chance to survive and wait for a transplant,” Junjun’s father said. “Once his inflammation clears, we’ll be able to go home.”
Pediatric heart failure is a global medical challenge, and only in China, about 40,000 children with severe heart failure are hospitalised each year, with 7 to 10 percent urgently requiring heart transplants.
Artificial hearts, or ventricular assist devices, can support cardiac function temporarily, but existing models are designed primarily for adults.
“Children are not adults with smaller bodies. They need an artificial heart designed specifically for them,” Dong said.
“China has made significant strides in end-stage heart disease treatment, progressing from a follower to a leader in select fields,” said Xia Jiahong, president of the hospital.
