Severe heart failure is the most life-threatening medical condition in all age groups across the globe. Implantable heart pumps, known as Ventricular Assist Devices (or VADs), have proven to sustainably increase long-term survival. But because they need to be tethered to an external power source using a cable exiting the body through the abdomen, these devices have not yet been fully accepted as mainstream therapy.
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This week, for the first time globally, a collaboration between developers from Israel and Wales has successfully a compact, fully implantable VAD (FiVAD) by combining two technologies.
The team paired Calon Cardio's MiniVAD with an implantable wireless energy recharging system from Leviticus Cardio. A 60-day in-vivo pre-clinical study at the Centre of Excellence at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, validated the integration of the two technologies.
The companies reported that FiVAD will allow a patient a full day without a cable or connection to any external equipment whatsoever. The recharging process itself only requires a light belt around the patient's chest during the night.
CEO of Calon Cardio-Technology Stuart McConchie said, "The combination of our MiniVAD, designed to optimize blood handling, and the Leviticus wireless technology provides a safe and usable truly wireless VAD system, representing major progress in blood pump technology. Together this FiVAD will significantly improve the lives of vast numbers of late-stage heart failure patients."
Michael Zilbershlag, CEO of Leviticus Cardio Ltd: "Our study has demonstrated that the combination of the very effective Calon MiniVAD and the Leviticus FiVAD offers for the first time a fully functioning heart pump without the need to be recharged for more than 10 hours allowing freedom from any external equipment for a whole working day."
"The successful 60-days preclinical milestone of the MiniVAD and FiVAD platform poses an encouraging accomplishment in further integration of these two innovative technologies," said cardiac surgeon Professor Ivan Netuka of the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM) in Prague.
"A system like this will give patients the freedom to do what they like for more than a whole working day without any external cable connections. When in clinical practice, this is more than we as physicians could have ever dreamed for VAD patient quality of life," added Professor Stephan Schueler, Head of Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
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