HeartWare Heart Pump Augmenter Kept Most Patients Alive

[Elmore Furth]

Left ventricular assist devices have become more and more commony implanted to assist patients with end stage congestive heart failure. Here is the latest generation of devices which is smaller, easier to implant and marginally better than the previous generation in terms of mortality at one year.

NOVEMBER 14, 2010
By Jennifer Corbett Dooren
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--An experimental heart-pump device being developed by HeartWare International Inc. (HTWR) was able to keep more than 90% of patients alive six months after receiving the device, according to a study released Sunday.

HeartWare's Ventricular Assist System is a device that's implanted inside a person to help people with severe heart failure. The device, known as a left ventricular assist device, helps a damaged heart pump blood. The product is approved in Europe and HeartWare plans to seek approval in the U.S. later this year for patients awaiting a heart transplant.

Left ventricular assist devices were originally designed to help patients survive until they could receive a heart transplant. Earlier this year, however, Thoratec received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to use the device in severely ill heart-failure patients who can't receive a heart transplant.

"These patients don't just survive to a transplant, they feel better and can be much more active," he said explaining that patients were able to walk further on a six-minute walk test after receiving the device.

HeartWare's device is considered a third-generation device and is smaller and easier to implant than current devices on the U.S. market, researchers said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20101114-703339.html">HeartWare Device Met Study Goal Keeping Most Patients Alive