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Italian doctors describe what went into the world's smallest heart transplant

Posted: May 24, 2012 10:17 AM by NBC News (CC)

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Doctors in Italy are describing the amazing implant surgery that saved the life of a 16-month-old baby boy.

Doctors implanted the world's smallest artificial heart in the young boy in March and now almost two months later the baby is doing well.

The tiny titanium implanted heart weighed only eleven grams.

An artificial heart for adults normally weighs 900 grams.

"From a surgical point of view this was not really difficult. The only difficulty that we have met is that the child was operated on several times before," said Heart Surgeon Antonio Amodeo, M.D.

The implant procedure allowed the baby to survive for 13 days until a permanent heart was implanted.

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