Fifty hospitals around the world more beautiful transplantation, surgeons and medical teams have become, or are training to be certified SynCardia centers. These hospitals represent 12 different countries around the world: the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Lithuania, Turkey, Australia and Belgium.February 25 and 26, the surgical team Onze Lieve Vrouw Aalst (OLV) Hospital, directed by Ivo Deblier surgeons, MD, and Karl Dossche, Ph.D., and accompanied by anesthesiologist Koen De Decker, MD, will be the first hospital in Belgium 50 and the hospital in the world to complete the first phase of certification training to implant the CardioWest temporary total artificial heart SynCardia.

To become a certified SynCardia center, hospitals must request and complete a rigorous training program in four phases, the first implementation monitored by an experienced surgeon total artificial heart.

OLV Hospital performs about 1300 cardiac surgeries, operations 700 and 180 pulmonary vascular operations per year. The hospital performed the first heart transplant in 1988. He established his first defibrillator in 1990 and its first mechanical circulatory support as a bridge to transplantation in 1995.