Prairie Heart Institute adopts new miniature
heart pump
Contact: Brian Reardon (217) 544-6464, ext. 44306.
SPRINGFIELD – Patients who have suffered a severe heart attack can now be
supported at St. John’s Hospital through a minimally invasive procedure that assists
the heart in maintaining blood flow to the body using a tiny motorized pump.
The Impella (Abiomed Inc, Danvers, Massachusetts) is a catheter-based cardiac assist
device that is inserted through the femoral artery, guided into the ascending aorta
and across the valve into the left ventricle. The device augments blood flow from
the ventricle to the aorta, which is critical to supporting weakened heart muscle
damaged during a heart attack or in cases of congestive heart failure. “This new
technology provides a tremendous benefit to a patient who is in shock following
a heart attack. As we work to open up a closed artery, we have to maintain blood
flow to the body.
This device supports circulation in a minimally invasive manner,” said Dr. Nilesh
Goswami, cardiologist, Director of the Coronary Care Unit at the Prairie Heart Institute
at St. John’s Hospital.
The miniature pump, delivered to the heart through the tip of a catheter, is a breakthrough
technology in cardiovascular care. The Impella heart pump acts much like Left Ventricular
Assist Devices (LVADs), which have been used for more than 15 years to keep circulation
going in heart patients, particularly those awaiting a heart transplant. Traditional
LVADs are much larger devices that require a patient to undergo open heart surgery.
The Impella device is implanted with a catheter, which is guided to the heart after
making a small needle puncture in the groin. “While not every heart attack patient
is a candidate for the Impella device, this leading edge technology gives us the
ability to perform high risk angioplasty more safely.
Early results indicate that clinical performance measure for patients who have the
Impella device implanted are better than with traditional intraortic balloon pumps,”
added Goswami.
St. John’s is among the first hospitals in Illinois to use the Impella device in
Cardiac Catheterization labs.