University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital was selected to join 14 other North American centers to participate in the Food and Drug Administration’s clinical trail of the Berlin Heart®.

This device, the first-of-its-kind, is like an artificial heart and pumps blood throughout the body. It is implanted on the outside of the chest while the child’s real heart remains in place, resting. The device is used as a temporary solution while the child’s heart rests and repairs on its own, or until a transplant heart becomes available.

The Berlin Heart® uses technology similar to that employed in adults with failing hearts but is much smaller so it may be used in infants as small as four pounds. “Right now, there isn’t another similar device for medium to long-term support for small children facing heart failure,” says James St. Louis, M.D., co-director of The Heart Center and director of pediatric cardiac surgery at University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital.

In March 2008, surgeons at University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital performed the first Berlin Heart® implant in Minnesota on a 22-month-old who contracted a respiratory virus that attacked his heart muscles. The Berlin Heart® performed extremely well and allowed the time necessary for the child’s heart to heal. The device was eventually removed and the child went home with a normally functioning heart. Since this initial success, University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital surgeons have successfully implanted the device in three other children.

“The Berlin Heart® has the potential to save so many lives,” says St. Louis. “University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital has a long tradition of research and innovation, and I’m very excited we get to be a part of the Berlin Heart® trials.”

A leader in pediatric heart research and care for more than 50 years, University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital physicians conducted the world's first successful open-heart surgery and the hospital is home to Minnesota’s only pediatric surgical catheterization lab, which is one of just a few in the nation.

For more information about the Berlin Heart® trials, contact James St. Louis, M.D., at stlou012@umn.edu or 612-625-7132.

About University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital
Part of Fairview Health Services, University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital opened in 1911 as Minnesota’s first children’s hospital. Today, it is known worldwide for innovative care for children with common to complex medical conditions. As Minnesota’s only children’s hospital that’s part of an academic health center, University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital is home to one of the nation’s top-20 pediatric research programs. Here, physicians and nurses not only deliver the latest innovations, they create them.

University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital is known for many “firsts,” including the world’s first pediatric open-heart surgery, first umbilical cord blood transplant for a child with leukemia, Minnesota’s first robotic surgery on a child and its first Berlin Heart® implant. U.S. News & World Report currently ranks University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital’s Respiratory/Cystic Fibrosis, and Cancer programs among the nation’s best in children’s health., The hospital’s neonatal care team also is cited as being among the nation’s very best.

University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital ranks among just 4 percent of health care organizations to achieve Magnet designation for excellence in nursing services by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet Recognition Program®. Recognized as a Magnet facility for its quality patient care, nursing excellence and innovations in professional nursing practice, the hospital has achieved one of the highest levels of recognition.