Autologous stem cell therapy for heart failure plus artificial heart bridge

Autologous stem cell therapy for a diseased heart using an artificial heart to bridge for time has been performed in Greece by an Oxford surgeon.

“Prof Stephen Westaby, from the John Radcliffe Hospital, led the operation on Ioannis Manolopoulos in Greece.

He used an artificial heart to relieve Mr Manolopoulos’s heart while it was injected with stem cells to help it rebuild itself.

Prof Westaby said it was thought to be the first time both had been combined.”