HeartMate Pumps for Patients Not Eligible for Transplant

HeartMate 3 has a fully levitated mechanism that doesn’t create much turbulence, helping to address the issue of clotting and the potential for stroke that is a risk with many previously developed heart pumps.

heartmate 3

Abbott‘s HeartMate 3 left ventricular assist device (LVAD) won FDA approval to be used as a destination therapy for advanced heart failure patients who are not eligible for a transplant. Previously, the device has been indicated for patients eligible for and waiting for a transplant.

Since transplant hearts are rarely available and not all patients are healthy enough to receive one, the HeartMate 3 can help the native heart pump blood throughout the body for the rest of the patients’ lives.

A quarter of a million people are living with advanced heart failure, and many of these people will need a heart transplant; however, only a few thousand can receive a heart. Abbott’s HeartMate 3 gives these patients new hope that they can receive a heart pump clinically proven to mitigate challenges historically confronted with therapy—stroke and blood clotting—while also offering survival rates on par with transplant.

 

HeartMate 3 has a fully levitated mechanism that doesn’t create much turbulence, helping to address the issue of clotting and the potential for stroke that is a risk with many previously developed heart pumps.

 

During the study, patients with the HeartMate 3 LVAD had an unprecedented survival rate of 82.8 percent at two years. Furthermore, rates of suspected pump thrombosis remained very low at 1.1 percent at two years. The study also showcased a low stroke rate of 10% for a continuous-flow LVAD at two years.

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