Successful second Sunshine C-Pulse implant

Three days after the death of the first patient to be implanted with its C-Pulse heart-assist pump, Sunshine Heart (ASX:SHC) has announced that a second patient has been successfully implanted with the device in a two-hour operation at New Zealand's Auckland City Hospital.

The company said the surgery had gone smoothly, and the patient had been discharged to a general ward 24 hours after being implanted.

On Friday, multiple organ failure caused the death of thje first patient to receive the heart-assist device 11.5 weeks after being implanted, but doctors said the death was unconnected with the operation or the device.

Surgical teams from two leading Australian heart centres attended the Auckland operation to observe the implant procedure at first hand. Sunshine Heart said they were "impressed with the simplicity of the procedure" and the speed with which it could be performed.

The patient was the second person with moderated (class 3) heart failure to be treated until the C-Pulse program. Patients with class 3 heart failure find the simple act of walking across a room exhausting. They have a poor quality of life that, on the evidence of the first patient's experience, can be substantially improved by the implant.

Dr William Peters, Clinical Research Fellow in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Auckland City Hospital and Medical Director of Sunshine Heart.said, "Patients enrolled for the C-Pulse trial have severely compromised health, typically having had heart failure for several years."

Peters said the risk of death within 30 days after surgery was very high in patients receiving heart transplants, or mechanical heart assistance, but the speed and simplicity of the Sunshine Heart implant procedure, and the fact that it did not require the patient to be connected to a heart-lung machine, potentially reduced these risks.

In future, less sick patients would probably be implanted with the C-pulse device, but for the time being, the procedure was restricted to very ill patients who had no other treatment options - and who were also at a higher risk of dying after the procedure.