Heart Disease - Top 10 Advances of the Millenium (well,
so far)
5) Advances in ventricular assist devices
Remarkable advances in ventricular assist devices (VADs) began to come to fruition in 2000. VADs are mechanical devices used in patients with failing hearts. Rather than attempting to be a totally artificial heart, VADs merely take over a significant proportion of the work of the left ventricle, thus improving the cardiac output. Newer, energy-efficient VADs incorporate a tiny continuous flow pump (based on the ancient Archimedes screw) operating at thousands of revolutions per minute. At least three such devices (the Heartmate II, the Jarvik 2000, and the DeBakey VAD) have entered or are about to enter clinical trials.
While the aim of the VAD is to buy the patient with a failing heart some time until the heart can repair itself, or the doctor can act to repair it (perhaps using, in the future, gene therapy or the insertion of new muscle cells), or a heart becomes available for transplant, it is clear that we are rapidly headed toward the permanent implantation of VADs. Technology now exists to render such devices fully implantable, without the need for lines or cables coming through the skin, and for recharging the devices' batteries through the skin, via an induction coil.
Given the advances made over the past year, it is likely that a permanent, fully implantable VAD will be available, at least on an experimental basis, within a few years. Such devices may revolutionize the treatment of patients with severe heart failure.
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