Researchers have invented a new device called heart squeezer to deal with heart failure. Heart failure is the bigger and growing problem. The new implantable device that looks similar to a blood pressure cuff is wrapped around the aorta. It is the main artery that is responsible for dispensing blood all through the body.
The device works similar to heart, it inflates and deflates to enhance blood flow and take some of the workload off the heart. There is increase by sixty-five percent in the flow of the blood to heart muscle. In heart failure the heart stops to pump the blood all through the body as it did effectively and efficiently.
Heart failure can affect one side or both side and can cause due to various conditions like high blood pressure or earlier heart attack. This happens as a result of lack of supply of blood from the heart to muscles. Treatments of heart attack include medication like ACE inhibitors that make the arteries to relax and allow heart to pump blood more efficiently.
Other is diuretic that decreases the amount of fluid in the body. An implantable device called pacemaker is also used to help the heart to beat commonly and more efficiently. Researchers hope that new device that is on trial in US and Canada will provide safe and less invasive substitute.
The device known as C-Pulse have three parts that is a cuff, a sensor lead and a base unit which is worn outside the body on a belt. On filling up with blood in the heart, a tiny balloon inside the cuff inflates. It shoves blood out of the aorta into the rest of the body. The less blood is left for the heart to pump.
Just before the heart does it, the device deflates to open up the aorta so the blood in the heart can pump out. Surgery to implant the device that is done under general anesthetic takes around two hours. The cuff is wrapped around the aorta in the chest just above the heart. Then sensor lead is inserted into the heart through a vein.
The two lead and cuff are attached to a drive line that is tunneled under the skin to an exit point in the abdomen. It is through this that the device is attached to the regulator. The whole system is powered by rechargeable battery in the base unit. Patients can go home after few days of implantation.
The device works by automatically massaging the main artery from the heart from outside the bloodstream. The results from tryouts looking into its usefulness and protection will be very interesting. This is an interesting growth in the field of heart failure treatment options, said Dr Jonathan Lyne, cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital.