Led by Prof. Michael Weyand, MD, cardiac surgeon, Dr. Tandler, and members of the heart transplant team at the Center of Cardiac Surgery Erlangen-Nuremberg at Friedrich Alexander Hospital, began Certification training to implant the CardioWest™ temporary Total Artificial Heart (TAH-t) on December 4th.

The training is a four part certification process that includes the proctored implant of the center’s first CardioWest™ TAH-t on Thursday, December 14, 2006.

For some hospitals, it can take months to find an appropriate patient for the first proctored implant of the TAH-t. At the Friedrich Alexander Hospital, that patient is waiting right now. This patient is unlikely to survive more than a couple of weeks without a TAH-t implant or a human heart transplant.

Speaking from Monday’s training, Dr. Tandler said "We already have an excellent candidate for the artificial heart. We are excited to now have a device we can use to help him survive to transplant." The surgery will be performed by Dr. Tandler and proctored by cardiovascular surgeon Latif Arusoglu, M.D. Arusoglu has performed over 100 TAH-t implants at the Heart and Diabetes Center NRW in Bad Oeynhausen, Germany.

The CardioWest™ TAH-t is used as a "bridge to transplant" for transplant eligible patients who: 1) have both sides of their heart failing, 2) do not respond to other treatments, and 3) are at imminent risk of death.

In Europe, since July, stable patients have been able to be discharged with the EXCOR® TAH-t mobile driver. At-home care speeds recovery and eliminates in-hospital costs for this portion of their care. Living at home is also