PLEASONTON, Calif.-Thoratec Laboratories' ventricular assist device has been implanted using minimally invasive surgery in two patients who later received transplanted hearts.
Thoratec said that it believes the operations mark the first time that a ventricular assist device, or VAD, has been implanted minimally invasively.
"Because this minimally invasive approach does not require a chest-splitting sternotomy incision, it reduces scar tissue around the heart that can occur following routine cardiac operations and allows for much easier removal of the device and placement of the new heart at the time of heart transplantation," said J. Donald Hill, the surgeon who performed the operations and the chairman of Thoratec's board.
Dr. Hill, of California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, performed the first minimally invasive operation on a 45-year-old man who received a heart transplant a month later. The second patient was a 54-year-old man who received a new heart after three and a half months with the VAD. Thoratec said that both patients have been discharged from the hospital and are doing well.
In addition to the minimally invasive surgery being an easier operation for the patient, Dr. Hill said that "it also may reduce blood loss and therefore reduce that the chance that the patient will become sensitized to blood given during the procedure."
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