Tiny blood pump for heart failure

A new cardiopulmonary machine can be implanted without going through 'invasive surgery'.

CircuLite's Synergy - the smallest implantable blood pump in use today - is about the size of an AA battery. Surgeons will implant a pump beneath the skin and meander its flow (shown in the image above and insert it under the thumb) into the heart using a catheter catheter. The separation of the patient's chest and the passage of the bypass between the heart and lungs will no longer be necessary.

For a patient with end-stage heart failure, an implantable pump that helps circulate blood can add up to several months or even years to prolong life. Currently, CircuLite - an Australian company - invented an implantable pump weighing only one-sixth of the smallest of the previous machines. The size of a AA battery, it can be transplanted through a circulatory procedure that is far less invasive than current pump operations. So it can be used to treat patients in the early stages of heart failure, which are patients whose previous transplant surgery is too dangerous for them.

(Photo: CircuLite)

Invented more than two decades ago, previous pumps - also known as ventricular support devices (VADS) - support patients limited to an external version and a device. Blood thinning. The second generation of VAD is still in widespread use, turning rotors into blood. Third-generation devices are made smaller, using magnetic or hydrostatic forces to float the rotor in the blood. That will eliminate friction between parts of the pump that previous generations lead to breakage or blood clots. However, the implantation of these devices still requires surgery on the sternum and the patient must undergo a bypass between the heart and lungs.

CircuLite's pump, called Synergy, uses a combination of magnetic and hydrostatic forces to float rotor parts . However, this pump differs from a VAD device in that it draws blood from another heart cavity and returns blood through another artery. Because it is designed for patients with heart failure in the early stages - the hearts of these patients can pump a modest amount of blood themselves - the Synergy pump has a smaller engine and less force. Unlike VAD implants that dwell deep inside the chest cavity, the Synergy pump is small enough to be placed near the skin surface.

Yoshifumi Naka - director of the Mechanical Circulation Support Program at Columbia University Medical Center said 'This is a very small and very well-made device'.

The device began clinical trials in Europe in June 2007 and has so far been implanted in 9 patients. So far all nine of those patients have survived, and five of them have had a successful heart transplant surgery. CircuLite estimates that US clinical trials will begin in early 2009.

The pump itself is located under the skin, but its flow tube enters deeper, into the left atrium of the heart. Currently, in European studies, surgeons have placed wire tubes between ribs. This small thoracic surgery is faster and safer than the thoracic surgery required for other implantable blood pumps, but still must be through the bypass pathway between the lungs and heart. When the device starts clinical trials in the US, it will be implanted with little use of the most invasive process. Instead of opening the chest and placing the tube directly into the left atria, the surgeon will use a catheter catheter to bend it through a large vein into the heart's right atrium, and then pass through. the inner wall of the heart reaches the left atrium.

Finally, Synergy will target patients who often do not use VAD support. These patients - at the end of stage 3 and at the beginning of stage 4 of heart failure, are often called 'hopeless periods' - do not react to the drug but still do not have enough disease to ensure for a serious and dangerous surgery. Paul Southworth, CircuLite's chief financial officer, said: 'They really have no other choice. " Naka of Columbia University said ' The earlier intervention will improve the quality of life of these patients. deeper way '.

CircuLite pump is powered by a 4-pound battery that is worn at the waist. Southworth said that future versions will even have smaller batteries, about the size of a Razr mobile phone. Pumped patients can live at home with relatively less restrictive lifestyles. 'They want to play with their children, gardeners or do what they have done before, so it is very important that they have something secretive,' says Southworth.

Although tests of the device have so far been aimed at maintaining life for patients with end-stage heart failure while they wait for a heart transplant, the Synergy machine has not been designed as a The device is called a bridge to a heart transplant. Providing a normal boost in heart health, the device aims to support long-term chronic heart failure patients - over the years - perhaps to avoid the last requirement. heart transplant. Preliminary results from European trials show that even this blood pump can help weaken the heart to heal itself by allowing it to rest.

Southworth says ' The device will allow the heart to rest and have the potential to recover and it will assist the heart in areas where the heart cannot pump as required.