Latest Artificial heart Stories

By John Porretto HOUSTON -- When Dr. Michael E. DeBakey pushed forward with his groundbreaking research and maverick approach to medicine a half century ago, heart surgery was a medical marvel. Today, in part because of his contributions, it routinely saves thousands of lives each day. DeBakey, a world-famous cardiovascular surgeon who pioneered such now-common procedures as bypass surgery and invented a host of devices to help heart patients, died Friday night in Houston. He was 99....

By Chicago Tribune Jul. 13--HOUSTON -- Dr. Michael DeBakey, the world-famous cardiovascular surgeon who pioneered such now-common procedures as bypass surgery and invented a host of devices to help heart patients, died Friday night at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, officials announced. He was 99. Dr. DeBakey died from natural causes, according to a statement issued early Saturday by spokesmen for Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital. Dr. DeBakey underwent surgery...

U.S. heart surgeon Michael DeBakey, who pioneered now-common bypass surgery and developed innovative pumps and other devices, has died at 99, officials said. DeBakey died Friday night of natural causes at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, not far from the Baylor College of Medicine, a once-provincial school that DeBakey helped transform into one of the world's great medical institutions, The Los Angeles Times reported. He had undergone heart surgery of the type he developed there in...

Growing risk factors in an ageing population have driven the rising prevalence of heart failure. With no new drug therapies, and existing pharmacological strategies failing to compensate for a weakening heart, other solutions must be found. Alternative technologies in particular have demonstrated promising results, suggesting we may soon eliminate the reliance on transplantation. The number of sufferers of heart failure is expected to climb to epidemic proportions. Worldwide, heart failure...

MINNEAPOLIS, June 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ATS Medical, Inc. , manufacturer and marketer of state-of-the-art cardiac surgery products and services, today announced that Mark Slaughter, MD will be presenting his experience with the Company's proprietary Forcefield(TM) technology at the upcoming American Society for Artificial Internal Organs Conference (ASAIO) in San Francisco. ASAIO focuses on a broad range of scientific issues from concept to commercialization of organ replacement and...

By Lisa Richwine WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seriously ill heart failure patients expected to live only a month and ineligible for transplant can get an implant of a permanent artificial heart, U.S. health officials ruled on Tuesday. The grapefruit-sized, titanium-and-plastic device -- Abiomed Inc.'s AbioCor artificial heart -- may give patients only a few extra months and costs about $250,000. The 14 men who received the two-pound artificial heart in a study lived less than five months on...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Mechanical appliances called ventricular assist devices or VADs, designed to take over part of the work done by the heart, successfully bridge the waiting period for many kids needing a heart transplant, according to a new report. In recent years, the success rate has climbed to 86 percent. "Bridging over 85 percent of patients successfully is really encouraging," Dr. Elizabeth D. Blume, from Children's Hospital Boston, said in a statement. "It shows that,...

MONTREAL -- Surgeons at the MUHC have successfully implanted a new kind of mechanical heart in two patients, the first time this new technology has been used in Canada. This new mechanical heart will allow some patients' damaged hearts to recover their normal function, and will reduce the need for heart transplants. This "bridge-to-recovery" technology promises to revolutionize the management of heart failure. The MUHC is one of only a handful of Canadian hospitals capable of...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Researchers have developed a tiny heart pump specifically for use in children, even newborns, with heart failure, a condition in which the failing heart pumps less blood than the body needs. The device, known as the PediPump, is smaller than similar devices used in adults, but still provides excellent blood-pumping support, Dr. Brian Duncan, of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio and colleagues report in the current issue of the journal Artificial Organs. The...

A new ventricular assist device (VAD) called the PediPump has been developed specifically for use in children. A status report on this new device appears in the July issue of the journal Artificial Organs. Measuring at just 7mm x 70 mm, this small rotary dynamic VAD is suitable for use in children, including newborns, in treatment of end-stage heart failure. The program that developed the PediPump is a partnership between clinicians at The Children's Hospital at the Cleveland Clinic and...