The only heart-assist device that allows patients to turn it on and off is poised for clinical trials. The device is seen as a possible bridge to heart transplant or as an alternative for nontransplant candidates.
Designed by Adrian Kantrowitz, MD, the Kantrowitz CardioVad System is ready for the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) phase 2 testing protocol. Kantrowitz performed the first implantation of a partial mechanical heart intended to remain permanently in a human body in 1966, and he performed the second human cardiac transplant in the world, the first in the United States, in 1967.
The new system boosts a native heart by taking over up to 50% of its function, allowing it to mend and so perhaps delay the need for transplantation. "Patients know to turn on the device when symptoms of congestive heart failure, usually shortness of breath, return," Kantrowitz said, adding that . . . [Full Text of this Article]
