Doctors examine state of artificial hearts

The LVAD device is placed in the abdomen and powered externally by batteries

November 5, 1999
Web posted at: 10:30 p.m. EDT (0230 GMT)

In this story: Device doesn't slow sportsman Some patients decide against transplant RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Medical Correspondent Rhonda Rowland

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Some 30,000 heart specialists from around the world have gathered in Atlanta to discuss the latest advances in the treatment of heart disease. One early session focused on devices that can replace the heart.

When a patient's heart is failing and no donor heart is available, doctors can sometimes use a stopgap measure -- a left ventricular assist device, or LVAD.

One of those devices has kept Ron Childress alive for nearly three years. His own damaged heart has been able to rest while the implanted machine does all the work.

"I want to tell you -- it was the difference between night and day," said Childress. "The thing saved my life."

LVAD's are placed in the abdomen and are powered externally by batteries.

The device is radically different from the massive artificial heart that kept Barney Clark alive for 112 days in 1982.

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Device doesn't slow sportsman

Patients on LVAD's can live a normal life.

"I like to deer hunt, and you have to climb trees and to set your stands up," said Childress of his life with his mechanically aided heart. "I've worked on my vehicles; we did some remodeling."

Childress is using the machine only until he can receive a donor heart.

"It's still considered experimental to do what happened with Barney Clark -- which is to put the person on the pump for the rest of their life, never intending to transplant them," said Dr. Patrick McCarthy of the Cleveland Clinic.

But because not enough human hearts are available, studies are under way to see how long a person can safely stay on the LVAD.

Some patients decide against transplant

"In Europe there are already patients who have been on the device for four years or longer, and there are even patients making choices that they're satisfied with their quality of life and don't want to go on to a heart transplant," said McCarthy.

Doctors have also found that some of the patients' hearts actually recover after getting a rest with LVAD's. Those patients have eventually been taken off the device and off the transplant waiting list. Studies are under way to find out what causes the ailing hearts to improve.

Still, the LVAD's are not without problems: They're heavy, at 4 pounds, and there is the risk of infection.

Those problems could be eliminated with a new generation of smaller assist devices now under investigation.

One was developed by heart surgery pioneer Dr. Michael DeBakey.

"I'm very hopeful and have as the ultimate objective the permanent implant," said the surgeon now at Baylor College of Medicine.