Mayo Clinic Recognized for Use of Total Artificial Heart

Friday, June 05, 2009

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Mayo Clinic is among four international transplant centers to be recognized for achieving 100 percent success rates for five or more consecutive patients implanted with the Total Artificial Heart. Patient success is defined as bridged-to-transplant or currently listed for transplant.

Nine consecutive Mayo patients who received the artificial heart, which serves as a bridge-to-transplant until a donor heart becomes available, went on to be transplanted.

More than 20 million people suffer from heart failure worldwide, and heart failure remains the number one reason for hospitalization. In the most serious of cases, the human heart can be removed and replaced with the Total Artificial heart, which pumps up to 9.5 liters of blood per minute through both ventricles — helping rejuvenate the patient's vital organs.

"Patients with biventricular cardiac failure have a very finite time to live, and the artificial heart allows us to help some of the most critically ill patients get a second chance at life," said Francisco Arabia, M.D., surgical director of Mayo's Heart Transplant Program. "We credit our dedicated and committed team of professionals and our courageous patients."

Dr. Arabia added that this bridge-to-transplant device helps strengthen patients who otherwise would not have been suitable candidates for transplantation and makes them better candidates for a donor heart.

This is the second consecutive year that Mayo has achieved the honor.

Mayo began using the artificial heart in August 2007. Since then, Mayo achieved a 92 percent overall success rate. Of 12 patients, nine have been transplanted and two are currently waiting for a matching donor heart.

Since opening its Heart Transplant Program in October 2005, Mayo has transplanted 66 patients and is the only heart transplant program in Maricopa County. Mayo is one of 26 centers worldwide certified to implant the artificial heart.

The recognition was bestowed by the manufacturer of the SynCardia temporary CardioWest Total Artificial Heart in Tucson, Ariz. The Total Artificial Heart is implanted in the patient's chest and replaces both dying heart ventricles. The device is powered by a pneumatic driver until the patient is transplanted with a human heart.

The other medical centers also recognized are Cleveland Clinic, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center and German Heart Institute Berlin.

Mayo was number one in achievement, performing nine in a row.

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Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. As a leading academic medical center in the Southwest, Mayo Clinic focuses on providing specialty and surgical care in more than 65 disciplines at its outpatient facility in north Scottsdale and at Mayo Clinic Hospital. The 244-licensed bed hospital is located at 56th Street and Mayo Boulevard (north of Bell Road) in northeast Phoenix, and provides inpatient care to support the medical and surgical specialties of the clinic, which is located at 134th Street and Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale.

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About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of "the needs of the patient come first." More than 3,700 physicians, scientists and researchers and 50,100 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minn; Jacksonville, Fla; and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. and community based providers in more than 70 locations in Southern Minn., Western Wis. and Northeast Iowa. These locations treat more than half a million people each year. To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to www.mayoclinic.org/news. For information about research and education, visit www.mayo.edu. MayoClinic.com is available as a resource for your health stories.