When he received a heart transplant March 24, 2012, former Vice President Dick Cheney joined about 2300 Americans who receive the lifesaving gift of a donor heart each year. After a 20-month wait on the organ waitlist, Cheney was fortunate; the shortage of donor organs remains an extreme problem, and many patients die before an organ becomes available.
Cheney’s weakened heart was supported since 2010 by a left ventricular assist device, an implantable mechanical heart pump. According to Craig Smith, MD, Chairman of the Department of Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, “His transplant illustrates the increasing success of LVADs to bridge patients through extremely long waiting times.” Despite the risks associated with LVADs, their safety has been improving and they are gaining increasing use both as methods to sustain patients until a heart transplant is possible (‘bridge to transplant’), as well as to sustain people indefinitely, called ‘destination therapy.’
Read more: http://www.columbiasurgery.net/2012/04/16/cheneys-heart-transplant-highlights-issues-in-heart-transplantation/Cheney’s weakened heart was supported since 2010 by a left ventricular assist device, an implantable mechanical heart pump. According to Craig Smith, MD, Chairman of the Department of Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, “His transplant illustrates the increasing success of LVADs to bridge patients through extremely long waiting times.” Despite the risks associated with LVADs, their safety has been improving and they are gaining increasing use both as methods to sustain patients until a heart transplant is possible (‘bridge to transplant’), as well as to sustain people indefinitely, called ‘destination therapy.’
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