Popular HeartMate 3 now available for long-term use

“People with advanced heart failure now have a new implantable option for long-term therapy, thanks to recent FDA approval of the popular HeartMate 3 LVAD system.

Surgeons at Michigan Medicine’s Frankel Cardiovascular Center are now implanting HeartMate 3 for destination, or long-term, therapy. Patients usually get an LVAD, or left ventricular assist device, after medications and lifestyle changes are no longer helping or to keep blood pumping while waiting for a heart transplant.

Now, even if a transplant isn’t in a person’s future, LVAD therapy can continue to support the left side of the heart, helping their heart pump blood from the left ventricle into the aorta to improve survival and quality of life.

‘This advance will result in better outcomes for our patients,’ says Francis Pagani, M.D., Ph.D., a U-M cardiac surgeon who was involved in the clinical trial that led to FDA approval. ‘The HeartMate 3 has a significantly reduced risk of pump thrombosis, a lower risk of stroke and a good survival rate when compared to an earlier version of an LVAD device.’

Continue reading this story by selecting the title link, featuring BioSocial Methods member Francis Pagani.