Domingo Santo Liotta (29 November 1924 – 31 August 2022) was an Argentine surgeon and pioneer of heart surgery who created multiple cardiac prostheses, including the first total

artificial heart An artificial heart is a artificial organ, device that replaces the human heart, heart. Artificial hearts are typically used as a bridge to heart transplantation, but ongoing research aims to develop a device that could permanently replace the ...

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, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

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 ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

in Medicine and Surgery in 1953. In 1955, he developed a technique for early diagnosis of tumors in the

pancreas The pancreas (plural pancreases, or pancreata) is an Organ (anatomy), organ of the Digestion, digestive system and endocrine system of vertebrates. In humans, it is located in the abdominal cavity, abdomen behind the stomach and functions as a ...

and ampulla of Vater (Pour le diagnostic des tumeurs du pancreas: La duodéno graphie hypotonique. Lyon Chirurgical, 1955). Liotta continued his medical career at the University of Lyon, 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 (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

. 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, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

, 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 artificial organ, device that replaces the human heart, heart. Artificial hearts are typically used as a bridge to heart transplantation, but ongoing research aims to develop a device that could permanently replace the ...

, at the Texas Heart Institute,

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. 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 signed agreements with Chinese Premier

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai ( zh, s=周恩来, p=Zhōu Ēnlái, w=Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from September 1954 unti ...

and Israeli President Ephraim 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