Berlin Heart Helps Children awaiting Heart Transplant

Bringing new hopes to parents of children affected with heart problems, scientists have found the efficiency of a device called ventricular assist device (VAD), better known as Berlin heart in maintaining blood flow and improving the survival rates among small children awaiting a heart transplant.

The efficiency of the artificial heart pump was proved by experiments conducted by researchers from Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. The findings of the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, recently included 48 children below 16 years of age.

The participants were divided into two groups, according to body size - one receiving the Berlin Heart EXCOR Pediatric VAD and another extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

At the end of the study, investigators found children who received Berlin heart living longer and more likely to be saved by a heart transplant or have a heart recovery compared to ECMO that provided only short term support.

The group who received VAD showed a survival rate of 144 days for large children and 174 for the small children, compared to 10 and 13 days respectively for the ECMO group.

Prior to the introduction of the Berlin Heart, doctors used to depend up on complicated medical therapies for children with heart problems. Survival of the patients was very low due to the shortage of heart donors.

"With the Berlin Heart, we have a more effective therapy to offer patients earlier in the management of their heart failure," Dr. Charles Fraser Jr., surgeon-in-chief at Texas Children's Hospital and professor of surgery and pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, said in a news release. "When we sit with parents, we have real data to offer so they can make an informed decision. This is a giant step forward."

Apart from the high survival rate, the risk of stroke was also found higher with the device. However, according to the findings, a transplant is possible even after the stroke.

The Berlin Heart EXCOR Pediatric Ventricular Assist Device received approval from FDA in 2011 and nearly 1,000 children has used the device since then. The device is not implanted inside the body. Flexible tubes from a small pump implanted outside the body are inserted into the heart. The pump and a computerized unit help in keeping the blood flow.  The device supports the pumping chambers of the heart in circulating blood all over the body.

In April, the small device had made headlines for keeping a three-year-old UK boy, diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) alive for 250 days, the longest period of time a child depending on artificial heart living in Britain. The small device helped the boy to survive until he underwent a successful heart transplant.