The Reporter: June 1996, Vol.7, No.3
International Journalists Learn About LVAD

A group of 30 international journalists visited CPMC this spring to learn about a mechanical heart assist device that may be the future's alternative to heart transplants. As part of a full-day tour of science and technology at Columbia University, the journalists toured facilities at the Morningside campus and Lamont-Doherty, followed by a meeting at CPMC with Dr. Mehmet Oz, director of the Mechanical Circulatory Assistance Program and P&S Irving Assistant Professor of Surgery. Dr. Oz spoke about the left ventricular assist device (LVAD).

The journalists represented publications from Hong Kong, Mexico, Hungary, Ecuador, Korea, Israel, and other countries. The tour was organized cooperatively by Columbia University and the Foreign Press Center based in New York.

The LVAD, originally used to sustain life while its user awaited a heart transplant, in many cases has improved the health of recipients enough that they can be discharged from the hospital until a donor heart becomes available. Such success has led to a major trial, with FDA approval, that will test the use of LVADs for long-term support outside the hospital. For people who are too old or weak for organ transplants but still have a considerable life expectancy, the LVAD can offer a goodquality of life,explained Dr. Oz. In addition, the shortage of organ donors has under-scored the need for an alternative to human organ transplants. Dr. Oz referred to U.S. statistics that indicate 40,000 potential heart recipients in the United States but only 2,200 donors.

Dr. Mehmet Oz shows a group of journalists how a left ventricular assist device is implanted in a patient's abdomen with a cable extending out of the body and connected to a battery pack.