Article preview from Medtech Insight - January , 2012
Since heart attacks most often damage the left ventricle, left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) have become the treatment of choice for end-stage heart failure (HF) patients in this country. But pure product prices for today’s LVADs, which had previously been relegated to use only in end-stage disease but now are moving towards the treatment of earlier-stage HF patients, run as high as $120,000 per unit.
Article preview from Medtech Insight - January , 2012
Preliminary price estimates for a new partial circulatory support device developed by Abiomed Inc., known as Symphony, are less than half that amount, pointing to enormous potential savings for the system should Symphony become an established therapy for even a portion of earlier-stage patients, which appears to be the current plan.
Implantation of the Symphony device requires neither a thoracotomy nor a sternotomy. The Symphony pump is implanted in a pacemaker-like pocket under the skin of the chest with a single graft to the central circulation via the subclavian artery. The device is then synchronized to the heart beat with subcutaneous electrocardiogram leads. It provides an output of 3 liters per minute (at 100 beats per minute), and is the first implantable cardiac assist device specifically designed to achieve heart recovery/remodeling, according to Robert Dowling, MD, clinical professor of surgery at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, who delivered a presentation on the product at the American Heart Association’s 2011 Scientific Sessions in Orlando.
According to the company, the device is designed to fill an unmet therapeutic need for NYHA Class III HF patients who are not candidates for revascularization, have not responded to inotropic drugs and/or cardiac resynchronization therapy, and who continue to experience poor quality of life with frequent hospital admissions. It is not intended for end-stage Class IV HF patients, Dowling points out. Instead, the aim of the device is to improve coronary perfusion, increase cardiac output, synchronize ventricular unloading, reduce myocardial oxygen consumption, and increase end-organ perfusion, he says, with the ultimate goal of improving patient hemodynamics and quality of life to the point where the patient potentially no longer needs the device and it can be explanted.
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