The Heart Group Brings External TandemHeart^® Device to Lancaster

Dr. Roy S. Small

LANCASTER, Pa. (June 18, 2009) — The Heart Group has become Lancaster's first cardiology practice — and one of only a small number worldwide — to utilize an innovative heart-assist device that offers treatment hope to high-risk patients with coronary artery disease.

Dr. Roy S. Small, president of The Heart Group and medical director of the heart failure service at Lancaster General Hospital, is using the external circulation pump, called the TandemHeart^®, to allow patients with severely weakened hearts to undergo coronary intervention (either angioplasty or stent). These patients otherwise would not be candidates for this therapy to open blocked heart arteries.

"We're using the TandemHeart in cases where the low level of heart function prevents us from safely performing coronary artery angioplasty or placing stents.," Dr. Small said. "The only other option for some patients in this situation would be heart surgery to perform a coronary artery bypass graft, and we have had cases where even that was not an option because the patients were too high risk. For them, the TandemHeart allows us to safely attempt a revascularization procedure."

Developed by CardiacAssist Inc. of Pittsburgh, the TandemHeart is a short-term assist system that also can be used with patients experiencing heart failure as a result of heart surgery or a massive heart attack. The system serves as a "bridge" to a definitive therapy.

When installing a TandemHeart pump in the catheterization laboratory, Dr. Small inserts a long tube, called a cannula, through the femoral vein in the inner thigh and advances it toward the heart and into the left atrium. The pump withdraws oxygenated blood from the left atrium through the cannula and then returns it to one or both femoral arteries. Placed on the outside of the patient's thigh, the pump weighs 8 ounces and is capable of delivering blood flow up to 5 liters per minute.

The circulatory assistance greatly reduces the risk of circulatory collapse, so that Dr. Small is able to safely perform the angioplasty or stent procedure. This treatment may be preferable to heart surgery in some cases when heart surgery is too dangerous or not an option. When the procedure is complete and the patient is stabilized, the TandemHeart is removed.