Domingo Santo Liotta (29 November 1924 – 31 August 2022) was an Argentine surgeon and pioneer of heart surgery who created multiple

cardiac The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...

prostheses In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

, including the first total

artificial heart An artificial heart is a device that replaces the heart. Artificial hearts are typically used to bridge the time to heart transplantation, or to permanently replace the heart in the case that a heart transplant (from a deceased human or, exper ...

used in a human being.

Early life

Domingo Santo Liotta, the son of Italian immigrants, was born in the city of Diamante, Entre Rios,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

on 29 November 1924. He completed his primary education at his hometown at "Independencia School", and his secondary education at the "Justo Jose de Urquiza School" in Concepcion del Uruguay, Entre Rios.

Medical education highlights

In 1949, he graduated as an MD at National University of Córdoba. He received a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in Medicine and Surgery in 1953. In 1955, he developed a technique for early

diagnosis Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine "cause and effect". In systems engin ...

of tumors in the

pancreas The pancreas is an organ of the digestive system and endocrine system of vertebrates. In humans, it is located in the abdomen behind the stomach and functions as a gland. The pancreas is a mixed or heterocrine gland, i.e. it has both an ...

and

ampulla of Vater The ampulla of Vater, also known as the or the hepatopancreatic duct, is formed by the union of the pancreatic duct and the common bile duct. The ampulla is specifically located at the major duodenal papilla. The ampulla of Vater is an imp ...

(Pour le diagnostic des tumeurs du pancreas: La duodéno graphie hypotonique. Lyon Chirurgical, 1955). Liotta continued his medical career at the

University of Lyon The University of Lyon (french: Université de Lyon), located in Lyon and Saint-Étienne, France, is a center for higher education and research comprising 11 members and 24 associated institutions. The three main universities in this center are: C ...

, France, at the "Pierre Mallet-Guy's" General Surgery Service. Then, he trained in thoracic and cardiac surgery, with Professors Paul Santy and Pierre Marion in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

. His early works in the artificial heart are from 1958 in Córdoba, where he developed an early prototype successfully used in small animals. After publishing the results of his studies, Liotta was hired at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas as Director of the Artificial Heart Program by Michael E.Bakey in 1961. In 1963, Liotta and E. Stanley Crawford first used the Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) in a patient. The original clinical prototype is displayed at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...

, Washington, D.C. The Liotta-DeBakey LVAD was first used in 1966. 1969 saw the first clinical use of the Liotta-Cooley Total

Artificial Heart An artificial heart is a device that replaces the heart. Artificial hearts are typically used to bridge the time to heart transplantation, or to permanently replace the heart in the case that a heart transplant (from a deceased human or, exper ...

, at the Texas Heart Institute,

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. According to DeBakey, this device was stolen from his lab by Liotta, (even though it was invented by Liotta himself). DeBakey said that the device had not been successful in animal experiments, so while the patient had the artificial heart in place, he developed multiple system organ failure, as supposedly the experimental animals had, and died shortly after a heart replaced the device. However, this proved for the first time that human life could be prolonged with such a device.

Legacy

Liotta was a member of medical societies around the world. He owned 12 patents in the USA, Argentina and France. He was the author of hundreds of scientific publications and scientific books, including medical humanism books in English and Spanish. As Secretary of Health he visited China and

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

where he signed agreements with Premier

Chou En-lai Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman M ...

and President

Ephraim Katzir Ephraim Katzir ( he, אפרים קציר, translit=Efrayim Katsir; – 30 May 2009) was an Israeli biophysicist and Labor Party politician. He was the fourth President of Israel from 1973 until 1978. Biography Efraim Katchalski (later Katzir ...

. Liotta continued to actively work in research and development of new models of heart assist devices. Liotta died on 31 August 2022, at the age of 97.

References

External links

fdliotta.org

texasheartinstitute.org

NMAH
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liotta, Domingo 1924 births 2022 deaths Argentine expatriates in France Argentine expatriates in the United States Argentine inventors Argentine people of Italian descent Argentine surgeons National University of Córdoba alumni People from Entre Ríos Province Baylor College of Medicine physicians and researchers