New pump could eliminate heart transplants

UMC researchers hope to be able to implant permanent, battery-powered heart pumps in humans by the end of this year.

The study, which will be conducted at the center starting in a few months, will be headed by Dr. Richard G. Smith, technical director at UMC's artificial heart program. The study's two key surgeons will be Dr. Jack Copeland and Dr. Francisco Arabia.

"The technology has reached to the point that we can have a permanent pump," said Copeland, a professor of surgery at UMC.

Each year, doctors perform about 2,500 heart transplants, but the new pump would be available to an unlimited number of patients.

"Heart transplants are limited by the amount of donors we have," Smith said.

He said the pump would only be used as a last resort for those whose "hearts cannot be fixed by normal means."

"This is for heart end-stage disease, nothing can fix it anymore," Smith said.

Copeland said some patients, such as those with cancer, are not good heart transplant material.

Heart transplants require medication that can cause patients in remission to redevelop the disease.

There would be no such risk with the permanent pump.

The Federal Drug Administration approved two temporary heart pumps this week, the Novacor and HeartMate pumps.

Although the newly-approved devices serve a similar function to the pump UMC's team plans to build, they can stay in the body only for several months.

Both temporary pumps, manufactured by different companies, are on the market around the country. UMC uses Baxter Healthcare Corp.'s Novacor pump.

Copeland said in test cases, no patient has had such a pump inside the body for more than six months.

The devices only bring temporary comfort to patients waiting for heart transplants, Smith said.

"They are the bridge to transplants - not designed for long term use," Smith said.

"It's a fairly simple device - it has a portable driving system and batteries," Copeland said of the FDA-approved pump.

Although the permanent pumps are still waiting for approval, they have been used for three years across the Atlantic.

"Other places in the world have this - they have it in European transplant centers," Smith said. "They don't have the same (regulatory) limitations."

The United States requires extensive studies to guarantee new medical devices work before the FDA will approve them.

If the UMC study is successful, patients who receive the permanent pump will never miss a beat.

"This is an alternative treatment," Copeland said.

Irene Hsiao can be reached via e-mail at Irene.Hsiao@wildcat.arizona.edu.