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Implanted Blood-Pumping Devices

Last Updated: Wednesday, March 21, 2007

There are currently at least 4.8 million people in the United States with congestive heart failure, a condition in which the heart is either unable to properly fill with blood or unable to properly pump it to the rest of the body. Because a heart attack weakens the heart muscle, heart-attack survivors often develop congestive heart failure. As advances in cardiac care save the lives of ever more heart-attack victims, the population of those with congestive heart failure grows—there are 550,000 new cases each year. Many of these patients will survive less than five years, and 287,000 die every year.

Despite improvements in medical therapy and the efficacy of implanted pacemakers, a portion of the population still reaches the end stages of the disease. For these patients, the only available therapies are heart transplantation (which continues to be limited by organ availability) and mechanical-assist devices.

A left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is an instrument that is attached to the heart to replace the heart’s main pumping chamber (the left ventricle). Normally, the left ventricle pumps blood from the heart to the rest of the body. After the implantation, the left ventricle pumps blood into the artificial pumping chamber, which then pumps the blood to the rest of the body. The device is inserted inside the chest cavity, and a power cord comes out of the abdomen and plugs into a battery pack worn on the waist. For some patients, this device serves as a temporary treatment until a heart donor can be found. (This use is called “bridge to transplant.”) For other patients, the device will ease the burden on the heart enough that further therapy is unnecessary (“bridge to recovery”). For patients who are terminal and not eligible for a transplant operation, the device will extend their lifespan from several months to several years (“destination therapy”).

LVAD implantation is a major heart surgery requiring general anesthesia. Most patients remain in the hospital for 10 to 14 days. View Full Article »