Picard Medical/ SynCardia Highlights Successful Bridge-to-Transplant Case at UCSF Health Using the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart
TUCSON, Ariz., Feb. 12, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Picard Medical, Inc. (NYSE:PMI) ("Picard" or the "Company"), parent company of SynCardia Systems LLC, maker of the world's first total artificial heart approved by both the U.S. FDA and Health Canada, today announced that University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Health has successfully performed its first heart transplant in a patient who had previously been supported with the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart, marking an important clinical milestone in the treatment of advanced biventricular heart failure. UCSF Health is the U.S. News & World Report 2025-2026 top-ranked hospital in California.
UCSF announced in a press release yesterday that a 37-year-old patient from California's Central Valley was admitted to UCSF in August 2025 with end-stage heart failure. Within weeks, surgeons implanted the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart (STAH) manufactured by Picard Medical Inc., through its wholly owned subsidiary SynCardia Systems LLC. It was the fifth patient that UCSF Health had implanted with a SynCardia Total Artificial Heart. The six-hour procedure took place at the Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights. The patient was then discharged and three months later, the patient successfully underwent heart transplantation. The announcement stated that the patient continues to recover well and looks forward to returning home to care for his young daughter with renewed strength and health.
The procedures were performed by cardiac surgeon Amy Fiedler, M.D., Surgical Director of the Heart Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support Program, and Jason W. Smith, M.D., Chief of Cardiac Surgery and Lung Transplantation. UCSF has one of the largest heart transplant programs in the country and, in Northern CA, has the only active program that fully implants the mechanical heart.
Patrick NJ Schnegelsberg, Chief Executive Officer of Picard Medical Inc., commented, "This fifth case at UCSF highlights the continued clinical adoption of the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart at leading transplant centers and now has a corresponding successful heart transplantation. For patients in advanced biventricular failure, time is critical. The ability to stabilize and sustain these patients, so that they are also healthy enough for surgery until a suitable donor heart becomes available is central to our mission."
Picard Medical Inc is also advancing development of the Emperor TAH, a fully implantable next generation device designed to expand access to long-term mechanical circulatory support without the need for external pneumatic drivers.
About UCSF Health
UCSF Health is recognized worldwide for its innovative patient care, reflecting the latest medical knowledge, advanced technologies and pioneering research. It includes the flagship UCSF Medical Center, which is among the nation's top specialty hospitals, as well as UCSF Benioff Children Hospitals with campuses in San Francisco and Oakland; two community hospitals, UCSF Health Stanyan Hospital and UCSF Health Hyde Hospital; Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital; UCSF Benioff Children Physicians; and the UCSF Faculty Practice. UCSF Health UCSF Medical Center ranks among the country's top specialty hospitals for adult care, according to U.S. News and World Report, and is best in the San Francisco Metro Area in Cardiology, Heart and Vascular Surgery. UCSF Health excels in numerous complex cardiology procedures and conditions and received the highest rating, High Performing, for aortic valve surgery, as well as specialty care for heart arrhythmias, heart attacks, heart failure, and pacemaker implantation. These hospitals serve as the academic medical center of the University of California, San Francisco, which is world renowned for its graduate level health sciences education and biomedical research. UCSF Health maintains affiliations with hospitals and health organizations throughout the Bay Area. For more information, visit https://ucsfhealth.org.
About Picard Medical and SynCardia
Picard Medical, Inc. is the parent company of SynCardia Systems, LLC ("SynCardia"), the Tucson, Arizona–based leader with the only commercially available total artificial heart technology for patients with end-stage heart failure. SynCardia develops, manufactures, and commercializes the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart ("STAH"), an implantable system that assumes the full functions of a failing or failed human heart. It is the first artificial heart approved by both the FDA and Health Canada, and it remains the only commercially available artificial heart in the United States and Canada. With more than 2,100 implants performed at hospitals across 27 countries, the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart is the most widely used and extensively studied artificial heart in the world.
For additional information about Picard Medical, please visit www.picardmedical.com or review the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov.
Contact:
Investors
Eric Ribner
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LifeSci Advisors LLC
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Picard Medical, Inc./SynCardia Systems, LLC
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General/Media
Brittany Lanza
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