by
Thomas Dworetzky, Contributing Reporter | March 10, 2015
Substantial blood flow through
each ventricle by the
SynCardia Total Artificial Heart
helps bridge patients
with heart failure
and marginal renal function
to a heart-kidney transplant.
Two patients with chronic kidney and heart failure were successfully transitioned to combined heart-kidney transplantation through the temporary use of a SynCardia Total Artificial Heart, according a recent report.
The heart "may be the mechanical circulatory support device most likely to recover patients with marginal renal function and advanced heart failure," stated the authors of the report, published in the January-February 2015 peer-reviewed journal Transplantation Proceedings.
"Both patients...had evidence of chronic kidney disease (stage 3) upon admission, as well as heart failure," added the authors, "and subsequently developed dialysis-dependent renal failure."
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A woman, 55, received the SynCardia Heart, and after 148 days of support, she received a heart-kidney transplant and was discharged from the hospital 15 days later. A man, 56, received a SynCardia Heart and was transplanted with a donor heart and kidney 123 days later. He was discharged from the hospital two weeks after the transplant.
The Total Artificial Heart can be a life saver for patients with left and right ventricular failure, a SynCardia spokesperson told DOTmed News. If they have biventricular heart failure and good kidney function prior to implant surgery, and if the patient develops kidney failure following surgery, in most cases, the Total Artificial Heart helps reverse the kidney failure which results in normal kidney function.
On the basis of the 10 authors' experience with the two patients, "we consider (the Total Artificial Heart) a safe and feasible option for bridging carefully selected patients with heart and kidney failure to combined [heart-kidney transplants]," reported the physicians.
With recent FDA approval of the 13.5-pound Freedom Portable Driver, clinically stable SynCardia Total Artificial Heart patients who require kidney dialysis can be discharged from the hospital and receive their dialysis as outpatients.
Since January 2010 more than 550 SynCardia Hearts have been implanted – the youngest patient to receive one was 9 years old; the oldest was 80 years old. The record for the longest length of time that a patient has lived with the artificial heart was nearly four years before receiving a successful donor heart transplant.
