With Each Operation, Artificial Hearts Show More Promise
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Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Not long ago, patients diagnosed with heart failure would have faced a grim prognosis, as there would have been few options available to sustain them until a donor heart became available. But that may be changing.
On June 21, physicians at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston announced that they had performed the first successful artificial heart transplant in New England for a patient who had advanced heart failure.
“It’s a regional milestone,” said Dr. Gregory Couper, surgical director of the heart transplant program at Brigham and Women’s. “This is the first implantation of an artificial heart in a patient needing a heart transplant in New England.”
Although this is the first transplant in New England, other artificial heart transplants have already been performed around the United States and internationally. In fact, artificial hearts are being manufactured by a few companies, one of which is testing their device at 30 sites across the country.
More than five million people in the United States currently have heart failure. In heart failure, the heart muscles weaken such that the heart is unable to pump a sufficient amount of blood through the body. If the heart failure is left untreated, then other organs, including the kidneys, begin to fail.
Physicians will first attempt to manage heart failure patients with medications that help get rid of excess fluid in the body while also controlling blood pressure. For the 50,000 to 100,000 patients with advanced heart failure who cannot be treated with medications, a device known as the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) may be helpful. LVADs are devices that replace the function of the failing heart, and artificially pump blood throughout the body’s circulatory system.
But in some cases even LVADs may not be effective in helping heart function. That is where artificial hearts come into play. The artificial heart acts as a bridge therapy — a temporary measure until a patient can get off the organ donor waiting list and receive a heart transplant.
About 2,000 heart transplants are performed in the U.S. each year, although thousands more — if enough donors were available — could potentially benefit from them.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio