[Implantable and portable left ventricular assistance: initial successful clinical application in Belgium]

On July 13, 1994, at the "Cliniques universities St. Luc", a wearable left ventricular assist device was successfully implanted, for the first time in Belgium, in a 44-year-old male. He had been readmitted with end-stage congestive heart failure 7 years after a first cardiac transplantation. In the absence of a suitable donor heart, the Novacor system was installed: the prosthetic ventricle is buried in the left flank and connected to the apex of the left ventricle and to the ascending aorta by means of valved conduits. The Novacor has allowed the patient to be optimally revalidated while waiting for a "ideal" donor heart. On Oct.-16, 1994, after 95 days of assistance, re-transplantation was uneventful and the patient has resumed a full-ranged activity as from January 1995.