Heart Transplant

Ventricular Assist Devices

A left ventricular assist device helps a failing heart pump blood.

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Mayo Clinic has extensive experience using ventricular assist devices (VADs). The team of care providers is led by a group of surgeons and health care professionals who are among the most experienced in the country. Assisting them are cardiologists, intensivists, pulmonologists, nurses, physical therapists and occupational therapists dedicated to caring for patients who need ventricular assist devices or VADs.

Ventricular assist devices (heart pumps) support patients with intractable congestive heart failure. Heart pumps used to support the left ventricle alone are known as LVADs (left ventricular assist devices) and those used to support both the right and left ventricle are known as bi-vads (biventricular assist devices). Sometimes only the right ventrical is supported (RVAD).

Ventricular assist devices are utilized at Mayo for three reasons:

1. In patients awaiting cardiac transplant, ventricular assist devices can be implanted to support the failing heart and serve as a "bridge to transplant."
2. In some patients with reversible forms of cardiac failure, a ventricular assist device can be implanted with the hope that it will allow the heart to recover, and later the assist device can be removed. This indication is known as "bridge to recovery."
3. Finally, in selected patients who are not good candidates for cardiac transplantation because of other medical complications, ventricular assist devices can be implanted which are intended to support circulation over a period of years. This use is known as "destination therapy." The new generation of pumps is designed for chronic, out-of-hospital use so that most patients can return home after the VAD is implanted.

All three Mayo locations have Heart Failure Clinics where patients who have heart failure can be assessed for treatment with a ventricular assist device. In addition, Mayo's campus in Minnesota has an Advanced Heart Failure Clinic.