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Posts Tagged heart transplant
According to a study based on 2006 data from United Network of Organ Sharing in the US, 3,299 American children were on the heart transplant waiting list during an eight-year period up to 2006. Based on their ethnicity, the distribution is as follows:
A ventricular assist device (VAD) is a mechanical device that helps a failing heart to function. The pump-like device can be for short term use only, such as those for patients recovering from heart surgery or those waiting for a heart donor, or they can be for long term use such as those for patients suffering from congestive heart failure or cardiomyopathy. The longest record of a surviving cardiac patient on VAD is 7 years, as reported by the Texas Heart Institute last year. VADs have saved many lives of patients whose hearts are not longer capable of efficiently pumping on their own. VADs are especially used in patients waiting for heart transplantation.
Unfortunately, most VADs are adult-sized and are only suitable to assist adult-sized hearts. But what about those little baby hearts that need help?
Many babies are born with heart defects or hearts which are not fully developed. These conditions are called congenital heart defects and are common in babies who are extremely premature or those with Down’s Syndrome.
It is estimated that 1 in every 100 babies is born congenital heart defect. In the US, about 2 million people of different ages have some form of congenital heart condition. Thanks to medical advances, what were declared as “death sentence cases” half a century ago can now be corrected surgically.
In the recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, several articles discuss different aspects of heart transplantation. One interesting aspect is about reversing the irreversible - donating hearts after cardiac death.
It used to be that organ donation can only occur after cardiac death, e.g. after a donor’s heart has completely stopped. Organs such as kidneys can then be transplanted from the donor to the recipient. However, this posed a challenge for heart transplant since the donor’s heart is dead and has irreversibly stopped, and is therefore not viable for transplantation anymore.
Raquel Billiones has a PhD in Biology and has over 15 years experience as a researcher, scientific English teacher, and medical writer. Since 2006, she has been a freelance WAHM specializing in medical writing and scientific documentation. More ..
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