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Device gives heart an assist by Jill Armentrout | The Saginaw News Jeff Schrier | The Saginaw News It made all the difference for Hugh A. Smith of Pigeon, the second patient to benefit from the device last week in Midland. After a heart attack, his organ was operating at just 15 to 20 percent of normal capacity. "I needed two stents to clear blockages, but my doctor didn't think I'd make it through the procedure," Smith said. Instead, doctors inserted Abiomed's Impella 2.5 through a catheter into an artery and guided it into his heart to assist pumping during procedures such as placing stents to open up vessel blockages. An external motor turns the pump to keep blood flowing in weakened hearts. Danvers, Mass.-based Abiomed says doctors have used its device to provide partial circulatory support in more than 600 patients worldwide. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its use here about six months ago, said Dr. William Felten, an interventional cardiologist who used the pump on Smith. Dr. Gregory G. Pellizzon, an interventional cardiologist with Michigan CardioVascular Institute's Midland office, used the pump on the first patient at MidMichigan last week. The Impella can generate blood flow of up to 2.5 liters per minute. The tip of the catheter has a curved "tail" that crosses the patient's heart valve to rest in the left ventricle. By temporarily assisting the heart with its pumping, it takes strain off the organ and provides nutrients and oxygen to the body. MidMichigan is the first hospital in the region to use this technology, company officials said. "For very high-risk patients who've had massive heart attacks, if you put a balloon catheter in, they may end up on life support," said Felten, who works out of MCVI's Freeland and Midland clinics. "The pump delivers almost half of the normal cardiac reserve of blood. "In the past, we might have transferred them to Ann Arbor, where they could open up the chest and put a pump right on the heart. With the Impella, we can do most cases right here." "One of my arteries was 70 percent blocked and the other 90 percent," Smith said. "If I didn't have the stents, I'd just be waiting for them to plug up completely and I'd have maybe a year left. We hope this can get blood back to the bottom of the heart. I go back in a month to find out." Smith, 59, worked for 40 years in maintenance at Tower Automotive in Elkton, but his doctors don't think he can return to work, he said. "They say I could have a decent life, but I will likely retire," he said. "I like to go fishing with my grandchildren and watch them play sports, go hunting." He isn't a candidate for a heart transplant because he also has a lung disease, Felten said, but this procedure will improve his quality of life. "I'm feeling pretty good and have more energy," Smith said. "If I get my heart pumping more, I can get more active again." Felten said he expects his MCVI partners to promote use of the device in Saginaw. Each one-time-use device is "fairly expensive," as is the motor drive console required, he said. It's not clear yet how insurers will reimburse these costs. St. Mary's of Michigan in Saginaw doesn't have the Impella pump, but spokesman Ken Santa said officials are investigating it for possible future use. "It holds the promise of an exciting new technology." Covenant HealthCare of Saginaw is purchasing the device for use starting within a month, officials said. Felten said he thinks doctors at MidMichigan will use the pump about once a month. |
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