Artificial Heart Buys Time Until Transplant
Artificial Heart Buys Time Until Transplant
Aug. 25, 2004 -- An artificial heart keeps heart failure patients alive long enough to receive a heart transplant -- welcome news for the 5 million Americans living with this condition.
Researchers report that 79% of heart failure patients implanted with the CardioWest Total Artificial Heart survived long enough to get a heart transplant. By comparison, less than half of similarly ill patients who didn't get the device survived to get a heart transplant. Artificial hearts are often called a "bridge" to transplant because it buys the patient some time while waiting for a donor heart.
The device received the cautious backing of an FDA advisory panel in March but has not yet received official approval for its use in the U.S. Although the FDA hasn't yet ruled on whether to approve the device, it typically follows the recommendations of its advisory panels. The study is published in this week's edition of The New England Journal of Medicine and was presented earlier this year before the FDA panel.
The artificial heart used in the study is modeled after the Jarvik-7 artificial heart, which gained notoriety in the 1980s when it was implanted into Salt Lake City resident Barney Clark. But Jarvik-7 failed as a permanent artificial heart for critically ill patients. The CardioWest Total Artificial Heart is being evaluated as a "bridge" to transplantation -- as a way to buy time for patients until they can get an actual transplant.
An estimated 100,000 heart failure patients need a heart transplant to live, since their condition is too severe to be helped with drugs or other treatments. But fewer than 2,500 transplants are performed each year, largely because of a lack of available donor organs. It's estimated that one in four people on the national waiting list for heart transplants dies while waiting for an available heart for transplantation.
"So there are 98,000 patients who fall through the cracks," says study researcher Marvin J. Slepian, MD, director of interventional cardiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and president of the company that manufactures the device, also being used in Europe.
Researchers report that 79% of heart failure patients implanted with the CardioWest Total Artificial Heart survived long enough to get a heart transplant. By comparison, less than half of similarly ill patients who didn't get the device survived to get a heart transplant. Artificial hearts are often called a "bridge" to transplant because it buys the patient some time while waiting for a donor heart.
The device received the cautious backing of an FDA advisory panel in March but has not yet received official approval for its use in the U.S. Although the FDA hasn't yet ruled on whether to approve the device, it typically follows the recommendations of its advisory panels. The study is published in this week's edition of The New England Journal of Medicine and was presented earlier this year before the FDA panel.
The artificial heart used in the study is modeled after the Jarvik-7 artificial heart, which gained notoriety in the 1980s when it was implanted into Salt Lake City resident Barney Clark. But Jarvik-7 failed as a permanent artificial heart for critically ill patients. The CardioWest Total Artificial Heart is being evaluated as a "bridge" to transplantation -- as a way to buy time for patients until they can get an actual transplant.
1 in 4 Dies Waiting for Donor Heart
An estimated 100,000 heart failure patients need a heart transplant to live, since their condition is too severe to be helped with drugs or other treatments. But fewer than 2,500 transplants are performed each year, largely because of a lack of available donor organs. It's estimated that one in four people on the national waiting list for heart transplants dies while waiting for an available heart for transplantation.
"So there are 98,000 patients who fall through the cracks," says study researcher Marvin J. Slepian, MD, director of interventional cardiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and president of the company that manufactures the device, also being used in Europe.
