On 27 October 2008, French professor and leading heart transplant specialist Alain F. Carpentier announced that a fully implantable artificial heart would be ready for clinical trial by 2011 and for alternative transplant in 2013.
It was developed and would be manufactured by him, biomedical firm CARMAT SA, and venture capital firm Truffle Capital.
The prototype used embedded electronic sensors and was made from chemically treated animal tissues, called "biomaterials", or a "pseudo-skin" of biosynthetic, microporous materials.

According to a press-release by Carmat dated 20 December 2013, the first implantation of its artificial heart in a 75-year-old patient was performed on 18 December 2013 by the Georges Pompidou European Hospital team in Paris (France).
The patient died 75 days after the operation.

In Carmat's design, two chambers are each divided by a membrane that holds hydraulic fluid on one side.
A motorized pump moves hydraulic fluid in and out of the chambers, and that fluid causes the membrane to move; blood flows through the other side of each membrane.
The blood-facing side of the membrane is made of tissue obtained from a sac that surrounds a cow's heart, to make the device more biocompatible.
The Carmat device also uses valves made from cow heart tissue and has sensors to detect increased pressure within the device.
That information is sent to an internal control system that can adjust the flow rate in response to increased demand, such as when a patient is exercising.
This distinguishes it from previous designs that maintain a constant flow rate.

The Carmat device, unlike previous designs, is meant to be used in cases of terminal heart failure, instead of being used as a bridge device while the patient awaits a transplant.
At 900 grams it weighs nearly three times the typical heart and is targeted primarily towards obese men.
It also requires the patient to carry around an additional Li-Ion battery.
The projected lifetime of the artificial heart is around 5 years (230 million beats).

In 2016, trials for the Carmat "fully artificial heart" were banned by the National Agency for Security and Medicine in Europe after short survival rates were confirmed.
The ban was lifted in May 2017.
At that time, a European report stated that Celyad's C-Cure cell therapy for ischemic heart failure "could only help a subpopulation of Phase III study participants, and Carmat will hope that its artificial heart will be able to treat a higher proportion of heart failure patients".

A January 2019 update in Europe stated that the only fully artificial heart currently in the market was the SynCardia device and that Carmat's artificial heart ("designed to self-regulate, changing the blood flow based on the patient’s physical activity") was still in the early stage of trials.
That report also indicated that Carmat was, in fact, still hoping to "gain market approval for its implant this year, but is now aiming to achieve this next year.
One reason for this is that the complex technology has been undergoing refinements in the manufacturing process".
On 27 October 2008, French professor and leading heart transplant specialist Alain F. Carpentier announced that a fully implantable artificial heart would be ready for clinical trial by 2011 and for alternative transplant in 2013. It was developed and would be manufactured by him, biomedical firm CARMAT SA, and venture capital firm Truffle Capital. The prototype used embedded electronic sensors and was made from chemically treated animal tissues, called "biomaterials", or a "pseudo-skin" of biosynthetic, microporous materials.
According to a press-release by Carmat dated 20 December 2013, the first implantation of its artificial heart in a 75-year-old patient was performed on 18 December 2013 by the Georges Pompidou European Hospital team in Paris (France). The patient died 75 days after the operation.
In Carmat's design, two chambers are each divided by a membrane that holds hydraulic fluid on one side. A motorized pump moves hydraulic fluid in and out of the chambers, and that fluid causes the membrane to move; blood flows through the other side of each membrane. The blood-facing side of the membrane is made of tissue obtained from a sac that surrounds a cow's heart, to make the device more biocompatible. The Carmat device also uses valves made from cow heart tissue and has sensors to detect increased pressure within the device. That information is sent to an internal control system that can adjust the flow rate in response to increased demand, such as when a patient is exercising. This distinguishes it from previous designs that maintain a constant flow rate.
The Carmat device, unlike previous designs, is meant to be used in cases of terminal heart failure, instead of being used as a bridge device while the patient awaits a transplant. At 900 grams it weighs nearly three times the typical heart and is targeted primarily towards obese men. It also requires the patient to carry around an additional Li-Ion battery. The projected lifetime of the artificial heart is around 5 years (230 million beats).
In 2016, trials for the Carmat "fully artificial heart" were banned by the National Agency for Security and Medicine in Europe after short survival rates were confirmed. The ban was lifted in May 2017. At that time, a European report stated that Celyad's C-Cure cell therapy for ischemic heart failure "could only help a subpopulation of Phase III study participants, and Carmat will hope that its artificial heart will be able to treat a higher proportion of heart failure patients".
A January 2019 update in Europe stated that the only fully artificial heart currently in the market was the SynCardia device and that Carmat's artificial heart ("designed to self-regulate, changing the blood flow based on the patient’s physical activity") was still in the early stage of trials. That report also indicated that Carmat was, in fact, still hoping to "gain market approval for its implant this year, but is now aiming to achieve this next year. One reason for this is that the complex technology has been undergoing refinements in the manufacturing process".
Artificial heart