Study Shows Miniature Heart Pumps Keep Kids Alive

Washington (dbTechno) – A new study published in the journal Circulation has found that a miniature heart pump was able to help keep children alive while they were waiting for a heart transplant.

U.S. researchers tested out this miniature heart pump on a total of nine children, who were all severely ill and were waiting for a heart transplant.

These types of heart pumps are used quite often in adults who have severely damaged hearts.

They use these artificial heart pumps to stay alive while waiting for a heart transplant.

Could a miniature one do the same for kids?  This study says yes it can.

The majority of these heart pumps in the U.S. are too big for kids.  There have yet to be any kid-sized pumps approved in the U.S.

The researchers tested out the Excor pediatric ventricular assist device made by Berlin Heart GmbH.

They tested it out on a total of nine children, seven girls and two boys.

It was found to help out eight out of the nine children.  One child died from kidney failure before the heart transplant.  The other eight were kept alive long enough to get new hearts, and are doing fine.

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