Device Helps Heart Pump
Reported October 31, 2005
LOS ANGELES (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) — A severe heart attack can weaken the heart to the point where surgery to unclog arteries may be too risky. Now a new device is helping those with frail hearts survive surgery.
A severe heart attack left David Doerfler’s heart so badly damaged surgeons doubted he would survive surgery to unblock his arteries. “One artery was blocked 100 percent,” he says. “The other artery was blocked 95 percent, so, I was hanging on by a thread.”
Now, a third of Doerfler’s heart is cartilage and two-thirds is still working. But cardiologists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles used a new ventricular assist device called the Tandem Heart pVAD to get him through surgery.
According to interventional cardiologist Raj Makkar, M.D., the Tandem Heart pVAD allows doctors to make the procedure quite safe, as it takes over about 85 percent of the heart’s pumping function.
“This pump is capable of pumping up to four liters of blood per minute,” Dr. Makkar, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, tells Ivanhoe. “This is truly a lifesaving device.”
Blood is cut off to vital organs following a heart attack. The Tandem Heart gets blood pumping back into those organs. During surgery, doctors strap the mini-heart pump to the thigh then snake a catheter into the heart.
“The pump will deliver blood into the patient’s own body and will supply the needed nutrients and oxygen the patients need during their procedure, i.e. angioplasty or surgery,” Michael Lee, M.D., another interventional cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai, tells Ivanhoe.
The short-term fix bought Doerfler some more time with his wife. “I wouldn’t be here today,” he says, and he’s now waiting for a heart transplant with the hope of gaining even more time.
One of the main advantages of the pump is that it can be quickly inserted and is minimally invasive. Candidates for the Tandem Heart device usually have just had a major heart attack and are unlikely to survive surgery for an implanted heart pump or heart transplant.