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Heart Pump Mortality Too High

By Beth Janicek

The FDA describes a heart pump as:

“A heart pump or ventricular assist device (VAD) is a mechanical pump that helps a heart that is too weak to pump blood through the body. It is sometimes referred to as “a bridge to transplant” since it can help a patient survive until a heart transplant can be performed.”

The VAD is as small as a D-cell battery and is attached to weakened hearts to supplement pumping power.

A fellow blogger reported that Thoratec Corp. had recalled certain batches of its mechanical heart pumps due to five deaths. A new study shows that among 1,500 patients given a VAD instead of a heart transplant, 52% survived after a year. This could improve. At hospitals that install at least five pumps a year, there was a 31% drop in deaths.

The pump which costs $70,000.00,

“Should be concentrated in centers that do a lot of them, do it well and can translate that experience into excellent outcomes,” Hernandez, a cardiologist, said Nov. 24 in a telephone interview. “And right now, we don’t really have a system that does that.”

About 2,000 of the pumps are implanted annually and as many as 100,000 people with severe heart failure eventually may be candidates.

The numbers are discouraging but most of these patients were already high-risk patients, elderly and in serious condition.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Beth Janicek

Full post as published by San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyer on November 26, 2008 (boomark / email).