RNS story: Could heart transplants become a thing of the past, June 2008
Time: 2:35
URL: www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=332
Could heart transplants become a thing of the past?
Advanced heart-assisting devices are getting better and better, though donated hearts are still the gold standard
Suggested lead:
For more than 25 years, heart transplants have been the last, best hope for thousands of patients with severe heart failure. But there aren’t enough hearts to go around. Could technology be the solution that could make heart transplants a thing of the past? A University of Michigan heart surgeon says the answer might be yes. Kara Gavin has more:
Heart transplants save the lives of more than 2,100 Americans every year. But many more patients are still waiting for a new heart to become available, and hundreds will die without ever getting a second chance at life. Meanwhile, tens of thousands more people aren’t sick enough to need a transplant, but struggle every day with severe heart failure that limits all aspects of their lives.
Could technology be the solution – whether temporary, or permanent – for many of these people? Could heart transplants ever become a thing of the past?
The answer may be yes, says Dr. Francis Pagani, a heart surgeon and head of the Center for Circulatory Support at the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center. New devices, including a recently approved one called the HeartMate 2, can help many people with severe heart problems survive and even thrive.
A whole range of devices is now available. The general name for them is an LVAD, or a left-ventricular assist device. The name comes from the fact that the devices are attached to the left side of the heart, to the main pumping chamber that sends blood out to the body. Dr Pagani explains which patients can benefit from an LVAD:
It’s used in two applications. One, it’s used in patients that are awaiting heart transplantation whose condition deteriorates and the pump is used to stabilize their condition allowing them to wait healthy while they’re waiting for their heart transplant. The second application that we’re trying to develop for this type of technology is to use it as a permanent alternative to heart transplantation
Dr. Pagani and his colleagues have helped test all of the new devices as they have been developed over the years – with the help, of course, of hundreds of patients who have volunteered for clinical trials.
The University of Michigan has participated in nearly every significant device trial that has been performed. We participated in the testing of the first generation of devices. We are a major center in the development of the HeartMate 2 technology, clinical development of the HeartMate 2 technology, and we’re playing a significant role in the testing of the third generation technology
As he looks to the future, Dr Pagani sees a day when technology may match transplants in the number of extra years of living, and the quality of life, that patients can enjoy.
Over the past 15 years the technology has dramatically improved. The pumps now are very small; there’s even newer technology that is coming into clinical testing within the next year that even offers dramatic improvements in durability of these devices.
Kara Gavin, U-M Health System News.
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