Implantable miniature ventricular assist devices

Implantable miniature ventricular assist devices

Implantable miniature ventricular assist devices: As the society is aging, the number of persons with heart failure are also increasing. Many of them with severe heart failure require cardiac transplantation as the final option. But the availability of donor hearts is a limiting factor. Those persons waiting for a transplant can be helped by ventricular assist devices as a bridge to cardiac transplantation. Most of the ventricular assist devices are extra corporeal bulky devices. Implantable total artificial hearts also provide a limited quality of life for these patients. A recent report evaluated two implantable centrifugal ventricular assist devices as method to assist the functioning of both left and right ventricles [Krabatsch T et al. Biventricular Circulatory Support With Two Miniaturized Implantable Assist Devices. Circulation. 2011; 124: S179-S186]. The right ventricular device was implanted into the free wall of the right ventricle. It was noted that eight two percent thirty day survival was feasible and fifty nine percent of the patients could be discharged home after the procedure. A total of seventeen persons were implanted with two pumps and one each with a single pump for the left or right ventricle. There was no clinically significant hemolysis in any of them. The authors conclude that these miniature pumps give more comfort and mobility for the patients than the usual biventricular ventricular assist devices with displacement pumps which are bulky and noisy.