New EUA Places Abiomed Firmly in the COVID-19 Conversation

Sometimes when the discussion of tackling the novel coronavirus comes up, the use of medical devices gets lost in the shuffle. Most of the conversation surrounding COVID-19 comes from either the promise of a vaccine or the expansion of tests. Abiomed is adding to the conversation surrounding medtech’s potential contribution to the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Monday, the Danvers, MA-based company by receiving Emergency Use Authorization for a device to treat COVID-19 related right heart failure patients. The Impella RP is a temporary heart pump that provides circulatory support for patients who develop right side ventricular failure and initially won FDA approval in 2017. “In this case, FDA authorized emergency use of the Impella RP to unload the right ventricle of the heart and provide mechanical circulatory support, specifically for COVID-19 patients,” Shon Chakrabarti, MD of Abiomed’s Medical Office Team, told MD+DI. “[This] include[s] patients who have pulmonary embolism where a blood clot forms in the pulmonary artery or travels from another area of the body, causing the hemodynamic collapse of the right ventricle.” Chakrabarti added, “what we’ve learned with COVID-19 … is that it’s not like a lot of the other respiratory viruses that have caused pandemics in the past. We definitely see a ...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Cardiovascular COVID-19 Source Type: news