June 2007

 Dr. Vega Implants Georgia's First Heartmate II Device

Dr. David Vega and his surgical team recently implanted Georgia's first HeartMate II ventricular assist device (VAD) as a form of destination therapy (in place of a donor transplant) for individuals who are not eligible for, or unwilling to undergo, a heart transplant.
The four-hour procedure to implant the device was performed on a 44-year-old patient who suffered from congestive heart failure. The patient underwent the surgery for the experimental device as part of a clinical trial at Emory comparing the benefits and effectiveness of two different types of ventricular assist devices.

According to Dr. Vega, the patient suffered from cardiomyopathy — a deterioration of the heart muscle — and received the device as a means of assisting the failing heart. The patient is currently unable to be listed on a heart transplant list because of a very high antibody count, making it very likely that a donor organ would be rejected.

"There are approximately five million Americans who suffer from congestive heart failure, with another half million diagnosed each year," says Dr. Vega. "VADs offer new hope and a much greater quality of life for individuals who are not transplant candidates, patients who do not want a transplant or for people who may be transplant eligible in the future."

The Thoratec Corporation-developed HeartMate II is an implantable LVAS (left ventricular assist system) consisting of a rotary blood pump that provides blood flow through the circulatory system on a continual basis, and is smaller and easier to implant than "pulsatile" devices. One of its unique features is an automatic speed control mode designed to regulate pumping activity based on different levels of patient or cardiac activity. Other devices in clinical evaluation must be manually adjusted. Other appealing aspects of the device are its very small size, making it possible to implant the HeartMate II in smaller patients, and its weight, about one pound compared to the nearly five-pound HeartMate XVE.

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