For most people with complex congenital heart disease, surgical treatment can be both invasive and distressing. But a team of Sydney-based researchers believe they have found a "band aid" solution to a complex issue. Engineering "mini hearts” as a promising alternative to open heart surgery and transplants.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 Elle Pendrick was just three days old when she first had open heart surgery.
00:06 Born with complex congenital heart disease, it's become a routine procedure.
00:11 I've had all up five open heart surgeries and multiple cardiac catheters and other cardiac
00:17 operations.
00:18 It wasn't until I was about 22 after my fourth open heart surgery that I finally realised
00:24 that I have an incurable heart disease.
00:27 Elle now faces an inevitable sixth open heart surgery.
00:31 Each time she goes under the procedure, she's forced to put her life on hold for six months
00:35 while her sternum heals.
00:37 It impacts every aspect of your life from being able to work full time or being able
00:43 to even cook and clean for yourself some days.
00:46 But Sydney Heart researchers believe they've found a less invasive option, offering a band-aid
00:51 like solution.
00:52 Using a patient's stem cells to 3D print a regenerative patch that repairs heart damage
00:57 and can be applied through keyhole surgery.
00:59 They work as a human body, as the human heart, in a way that once they're transplanted, they
01:05 look like they're safe and they're also able to improve the way the heart is pumping blood
01:11 in our body.
01:13 With heart disease the leading cause of death globally, researchers hope this innovation
01:17 will dramatically reduce recovery times for people who would otherwise have to undergo
01:21 open heart surgery and shorten wait times for those on the transplant list because fewer
01:25 people would need one.
01:26 In reality, patients that the majority of them, they actually die waiting for a heart
01:31 transplant.
01:32 They're basically waiting on average between around two years.
01:36 Although intrigued, experts concede it will be some time before the treatment is available.
01:40 It's a little bit like going to the moon and so it may be that in the future we have regenerative
01:47 approaches for treatment of patients who sustain a large amount of heart damage.
01:52 Helping to mend broken hearts�
01:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]