Assisted Circulation for the Failing Heart: Experience with the Novacor Left Ventricular Assist System

Authors

  • Emily A Farkas Yale University School of Medicine; Department of Surgery, Section of Cardiothoracic Surgery, New Haven, CT, USA
  • John A Elefteriades Yale University School of Medicine; Department of Surgery, Section of Cardiothoracic Surgery, New Haven, CT, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2015/hc.v3i4.292

Abstract

Surgical therapy for the treatment of heart failure is a relatively young solution to a problem that has overwhelmed civilizations dating back to the First Dynasty.  As medical therapy is limited by the progression of disease, and as organ replacement is limited by the shortage of donation for a heart transplant, assisted circulation has emerged as one of the most promising treatments of the failing heart in our era. The focus of this article will be to review the history and future of the Novacor Left Ventricular Assist System (LVAS) as it relates to the failing heart; the story of how the innovator, the researcher, the engineer, and the surgeon have come together to offer a surgical solution to a medical problem of inconceivable scope.

Author Biography

Emily A Farkas, Yale University School of Medicine; Department of Surgery, Section of Cardiothoracic Surgery, New Haven, CT, USA

Specialty: Cardiac Surgery

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Issue

Vol. 3 No. 4 (2008)

Section

REVIEWS

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