Samsung Seoul Hospital Achieves First 100 Cases of Heartmate Artificial Heart Surgery in Korea

The Heart Failure Team at Samsung Medical Center announced on the 24th that they have achieved 100 cases of HeartMate artificial heart surgeries for the first time in Korea. The 100th patient who recently underwent surgery was bedridden due to end-stage heart failure and refractory ventricular tachycardia, and was discharged in good health after the operation.

The HeartMate artificial heart is a mechanical device implanted in heart failure patients who must wait a long time for a heart transplant or for whom a heart transplant is not possible. It is essential for sustaining the patient's life. This portable device, approximately 5.5 cm in pump size and weighing about 200 g, is implanted in the left ventricle to pump blood throughout the body.

Exterior view of Samsung Seoul Hospital. [Photo by Samsung Seoul Hospital]

The HeartMate artificial heart keeps the heart beating on behalf of the patient's own heart, providing hope for survival to heart failure patients who must wait a long time for a heart transplant or cannot undergo a heart transplant.

Artificial heart surgery is a highly complex procedure that must be performed at hospitals equipped with experienced medical staff and state-of-the-art medical equipment. Since successfully performing Korea’s first HeartMate II artificial heart surgery in 2012, Samsung Medical Center has steadily increased the number of surgeries. In 2016, it opened the country’s first "Artificial Heart Clinic," and in 2020, it also performed the latest model, HeartMate 3 surgery, for the first time in Korea.

Choi Jin-oh, head of the Heart Failure Team and professor of cardiology, said, "The HeartMate artificial heart has a 5-year survival rate almost comparable to that of heart transplantation," adding, "We are doing our best not only to ensure surgical success but also to improve long-term survival and quality of life through a multidisciplinary team and three specialized heart failure nurses."

Jo Yang-hyun, professor of cardiac surgery, emphasized, "Achieving 100 cases of HeartMate artificial heart surgery will be a message of hope to patients suffering from heart failure," and added, "We will continue to do our best to save patients’ lives and improve their quality of life."