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'Temporary' Heart Pumps Could Become Permanent
from the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)
Mechanical pumps originally designed to supplement the pumping action of a failing heart and keep the patient alive until a transplant could be found have taken a major step toward becoming a permanent treatment -- a development that could expand their use to tens of thousands of patients in the United States alone.
Results presented Tuesday at the Orlando, Fla., meeting of the American Heart Assn. showed that a new type of device more than doubled the two-year survival rate among heart failure patients. The key was the development of a smaller, quieter, more reliable pump that is less likely to break down and need replacement, an outcome that requires the patient to undergo a second major surgery.
The pumps are called left ventricular assist devices, or LVADs. They are not meant to replace the entire heart, only to assist in the pumping of the left ventricle, which pushes blood out through the aorta to the body.
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