Picture of Drs. Laman A. Gray (Right) and Dr. Robert D. Dowling (Left)

Led clinical team that successfully implanted ABIOMED

(co-principal investigators for the Jewish Hospital/University of Louisville AbioCor research team)

By Susie Davidson

Advocate Correspondent

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - Medical history was made this past Monday at Louisville Kentucky's Jewish Hospital when surgeons successfully implanted the first replacement heart, Danvers-based ABIOMED's AbioCor, in a man in his mid-50's.

A team of 14 nurses, perfusionists, physician assistants, anesthesiologists and others assisted as the Jewish Hospital clinical team, led by University of Louisville surgeons Laman A. Gray, Jr., M.D., and Robert D. Dowling, M.D., performed the seven hour procedure.

Gray, Director of the UL of Medicine's Division of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery for over 20 years and a founder of the Jewish Hospital Heart and Lung Institute, is an international leader in minimally invasive surgery and development of artificial hearts.

Dowling, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Director of the Jewish Hospital/UL Lung Transplant and the Kosair Children's Hospital Heart Transplant Programs, performed the first double-lung transplant in 1995.

Heart failure deaths have doubled in the U.S. since 1979. With the only option being heart transplant (2000 are performed annually), 100,000 potential AbioCor recipients currently exist.

If the titanium-and-plastic AbioCor works safely for five to seven years, it will become a transplant alternative not requiring anti-rejection drugs.

The patient, who had severe diabetes, kidney failure and late-stage heart failure, was given 30 days to live. He is conscious and is communicating, has sat up in bed, and is expected to walk within weeks. Survival is difficult to gauge at this juncture.

David Lederman, Ph.D., president and CEO of ABIOMED, thanked the National Institutes of Health's Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the Food and Drug Administration for their support and approval.

Jewish Hospital, one of the top ten cardiac centers in the United States (the eighth largest heart hospital and one of only a few worldwide end-stage heart failure facilities), has pioneered other cardiac milestones including Kentucky's first heart transplant, the world's first Thoratec left ventricular assist device heart transplant and endoscopic saphenous vein harvest, and the area's first ventricular remodeling.

Its Kleinert, Kutz and Associates Hand Care Center also performed the first U.S. hand transplant in 1999.

The hospital is providing its AbioCor services free of charge, thus taking great initiative toward universal availability for such operations, which, with 42.5 million uninsured Americans, would be otherwise impossible.

Henry C. Wagner, President and CEO of Jewish Hospital HealthCare Services, hails the program: "The Jewish Hospital Heart and Lung Institute is proud to once again be a part of groundbreaking research which will impact the patients of this region and around the world."

"The physicians who practice at Jewish Hospital are among the best in the world," says Wagner.

"Jewish Hospital's selection among the 100 top cardiovascular hospitals shows the rest of the country," lauds Doug Shaw, Jewish Hospital president, "[that] our dedication to staying on the leading edge of technology and commitment to research and clinical excellence has been a great benefit to our patients and our community."

The US FDA's five approved sites for implantation include Boston's Mass. General and Brigham and Women's Hospitals, which are examining ethical issues.