Circulatory System

        
   
 

 

  

Defibrillator

ECG Unit

Heart Pump

Hermatology Analyzer

Pulse Oximeter

Sphygmananometer

MRI

 

Purpose: An instrument that helps weak or failed hearts to pump blood to the body.

Usage Method: Hooked up to or implanted inside the heart to deliver or assist blood flow.

Portable: Yes for internal; external non-portable ones also widely used.

 

 
   
   

Heart pumps are not a replacement for the patient’s heart. Instead, they aid its main pumping chamber, the left ventricle. In this way they are often used to support heart transplant candidates until a donor heart is made available and, more frequently, to allow the heart healing time after surgery or a heart attack.

Left ventricular assist device (LVAD) or ventricular assist device (VAD)

Surgically implanted to supplement the pumping functions of the heart. The LVAD assists the left ventricle (which does most of the work of the heart); the VAD assists one or both ventricles.

  • Newer devices are fully automated: they can pulse the blood in a rhythm close to the human heart. This provides better blood flow and reduces the risk of multi-organ-failure.
  • A viable alternative to heart transplant in non-fatal cases
    Patients with heart pumps generally more likely to survive and feel better than those on medication.

  • Affordability: often runs up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
    Risk of infection and bleeding; devices are not yet 100% reliable

   
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