VAD(Ventricular Assist Device)

Eligible Patients

Patients who can benefit include those suffering from:

• acute myocardial infarction
• viral myocarditis
• postpartum cardiomyopathy
• steering wheel injuries
• end-stage heart disease
• failing transplants

It is also used for spontaneous left anterior descending artery dissection. Eligible patients, generally those under age 75, have exceeded the limits of pharmaceutical therapies, cardiological intervention and surgical correction.

Average Age . . .

The average age of those on the device is 52. It is estimated that 50 percent of patients who develop acute cardiogenic shock following an acute MI, despite maximal medical intervention, would benefit from ventricular assistance intervention. The device is most frequently used with patients whose hearts do not immediately recover their function following heart surgery – estimated at one percent of a hospital’s cardiac surgical patient population.

In Central New York, it is estimated that about 100 patients a year are candidates for the ventricular assist device. There have been incidents where patients without access to such a device died in transit between Syracuse and a heart transplant hospital.

With more than 700,000 cardiac deaths per year in this country,
heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and
one of the leading chronic conditions affecting the U.S. population.