On March 21, the Union Medical College Hospital Affiliated to Huazhong University of science and technology announced that a multidisciplinary expert team led by Professor Dong Nianguo of cardiovascular surgery of the hospital successfully implanted a super small magnetic levitation centrifugal "Chinese heart" into a 58 year old patient. So far, the hospital has completed 12 cases of artificial heart implantation. The ultra small magnetic levitation artificial heart implanted this time, also known as corheart 6 left ventricular assist system, has independent intellectual property rights and is a genuine "Chinese heart". The pump body has a diameter of 34mm, a thickness of 26mm and a weight of 90g. It is the smallest and lightest magnetic levitation centrifugal artificial heart in the world. There are about 10 million patients with heart failure in China, but due to the serious shortage of donors, only more than 600 patients can complete heart transplantation every year. One of the existing cardiac mechanical assistance methods in China is ECMO and the other is "artificial heart", which is called ventricular assist device (VAD) in the industry. Ventricular assist devices are divided into implantable in vivo artificial heart and extracorporeal artificial heart (extra VAD). Both of them can partially or completely replace ventricular work through artificial heart pump to maintain blood circulation. In vivo artificial heart is used in patients with end-stage chronic heart failure, which can replace heart function for a long time. "Extracorporeal artificial heart is mainly used for overtreatment of patients with acute heart failure. It plays a role in replacing heart function in the medium and short term, so that patients can go through the dangerous period and carry out heart transplantation in a short time. For end-stage patients with heart disease who cannot carry out heart transplantation or are difficult to wait for a suitable heart donor, install artificial heart for them, and equip the tired heart with strong power 'motor'." Dong Nianguo introduced. (Xinhua News Agency)