New pump LVAD ‘leads to full recovery from heart failure’
- The pump helps the main pumping chamber to push blood around the body
- Two fifths of a group of trial participants ended up with no sign of disease
- The device, known as a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), could be a lifeline amid a shortage of donors and an overflowing transplant waiting list
Mia De Graaf For Dailymail.com
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A mechanical pump can overcome heart failure and even help some patients to make a full recovery, a study has shown.
The pump, known as a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), helps the main pumping chamber of the heart to push blood around the body.
Two fifths of a group of trial participants fitted with one of the battery-operated devices ended up showing no sign of heart disease.
Experts have hailed the product as a lifeline amid a shortage of donors and an overflowing waiting list for transplants.
End to heart transplants after heart failure? A pump, known as a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), helps the main pumping chamber of the heart to push blood around the body
The average LVAD is £80,000 and it costs around £69,000 for operation costs.
Lead researcher Dr Djordje Jakovljevic, from the Institute of Cellular Medicine at the University of Newcastle, said: ‘We talk about these devices as a bridge-to-transplant, something which can keep a patient alive until a heart is available for transplantation.
‘However, we knew that sometimes patients recover to such an extent that they no longer need a heart transplant.
‘For the first time, what we have shown is that heart function is restored in some patients – to the extent that they are just like someone healthy who has never had heart disease. In effect, these devices can be a bridge to full recovery in some patients.’
LVADs are typically implanted in patients who have reached the end stage of heart failure, a seriously debilitating condition that occurs when the heart is too weak to pump blood effectively.
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The trial involved 58 male patients who underwent treadmill tests of their heart fitness.
Of the 16 who recovered enough to have their LVAD pump removed, 38 percent demonstrated a heart function equal to that of a healthy individual of the same age.
The team included researchers from Newcastle, Cambridge, Leeds, London and Louisville, US, who are looking for markers of early heart recovery which might help identify patients most likely to benefit from having an LVAD.
Co-author Professor Stephan Schueler, a consultant cardiac surgeon at Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘In most cases the device reverses the symptoms of heart failure so that patients feel less short of breath and with less fatigue.
‘In a smaller proportion of patients there is actually an improvement in heart function so that the pump can be disconnected or explanted.’
The research is published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
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