Italian Baby Gets World’s Smallest Artificial Heart

Italian doctors in March implanted the smallest ever artificial heart into a 16-month-old baby before the infant received a permanent organ donation, said the hospital that performed the operation.

"In March, the smallest artificial heart in the world was implanted at the Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome," Antonio Amodeo, a senior hospital official, said in a statement.

"The device, a titanium pump weighing only 11 grams and that can endure a flow of up to 1.5 liters per minute, was used in an emergency case of a 16-month-old infant suffering from dilated myocardiopathy with a serious infection of the ventricular assistance device that had been implanted previously."

The artificial heart made it possible for the infant, whose identity and sex were not revealed; to survive for 13 days before the baby received a real heart transplant.

"At present, at more than one month from the surgery, the infant is in good health," the statement said.