A new lease of life for patients with advanced heart failure

Heart failure is a chronic, progressive condition in which the heart becomes weak and cannot pump enough blood to meet the body's need for blood and oxygen. As a result, people with this condition feel tired and short of breath after routine physical effort, like climbing stairs. As the heart grows weaker, fluid starts to accumulate inside body especially in lung, face and leg. People begin to feel tired and short of breath after getting dressed or walking across the room and while lying flat.

In its early stages, heart failure is treated with diet, drug, lifestyle changes and controlling the underlying causes like high blood pressure, coronary heart disease or other heart problems. When heart failure progresses to an advanced stage, conventional therapies and symptom management strategies no longer work. And people feel shortness of breath and other symptoms even at rest.

At this stage, heart transplantation is being considered the definitive option. “But transplant is not an easy option due to many reasons. There are not enough donors for heart and even the option becomes available, people have to wait a very long time to get transplant. The surgery needs very sophisticated cardiac set up and have some fatal complications. In this situation, a novel device called Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD), a form of mechanical heart, can be lifesaving and very helpful to make failing heart pump and meet the body’s need for oxygen and blood“, said Dr Kenneth Ng, a cardiologist and an expert in managing advanced heart failure using LAVD in Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital Singapore.

LVAD is a mechanical pump that is implanted in the left chamber of heart. It does not replace the heart, rather it assists the patient’s own heart to pump blood throughout the body, decreasing the work of the heart. It is connected to a small computer that is powered by a battery unit placed outside the body. It can be externally monitored and is speed controlled.

Dr Ng who has managed several patients with LVAD has shared his experience recently with Star Health. He said that “LAVD is an amazing developments in cardiology through which patients can lead a normal life with a failing heart. It can be used for two purposes. One is to stabilise patient’s medical condition while they wait for a heart donor. And the other is for permanent use to restore circulation used in those cases, where heart transplantation is not possible or patients are not eligible for heart transplantation.

Mount Elizabeth Hospitals in Singapore are one of the pioneer hospitals in Asia to manage advanced heart failure patients using LAVD. Patients can get information about the device through Parkway Patient Assistance Centre (PPAC) located in Dhaka and Chittagong.