Mechanical support of Patients with heart failure: What are the future Hurdles?

The paper, “Ventricular Assist Devices: The Future is Now” by Lima, Mack, and Gonzalez presents the current status of mechanical circulatory support for treatment of patients with chronic heart failure [1] .The authors review patient selection, discuss the basic technical aspects of current assist devices including the total artificial heart, and give an overview of expected outcomes including patient survival and quality of life. Indeed, it is remarkable that for over 40 years surgeons and physiologists have explored many aspects of cardiac assist device design, biomaterials compatibility, and physiologic responses, but until the last decade, use of mechanical cardiac support was limited largely to patients with postcardiotomy cardiogenic shock or candidates for cardiac transplantation who had profound circulatory failure.
Source: Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: research