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MUSC recognized as top in nation with artificial heart device success by Mary Helen Yarborough Public Relations MUSC has been recognized as being among the top open heart centers in the nation that use ventricular assist devices. It recently received the Center of Excellence designation by Abiomed Inc., maker of medical devices designed to help people survive severe heart conditions.   MUSC was one of the top four among 700 open heart centers nationally that use the Abiomed’s Ventricular Assist Device (VAD).   The FDA-approved AB5000 VAD device pumps blood in place of a still-beating weak or damaged heart until the heart recovers or until a transplant heart is located. The device enables the patient to gain strength, which also retains the health and function of the patient’s other vital organs, said John S. Ikonomidis, M.D., Ph.D., surgical director of MUSC’s Cardiac Transplant Program. “They can eat; they can work out on the treadmill with the device attached to them,” Ikonomidis said. “The whole body rests and bulks up so that the patient is stronger for surgery.”   With regard to ventricular assist, Ikonomidis said MUSC’s program is unique in the state in that, “we offer mechanical assist in a dedicated, multidisciplinary program that offers a comprehensive medical approach to the patient, with all available adjunctive treatment modalities. In this way, we are able to recover individuals with acute viral myocarditis and myocardial infarctions, support post-cardiac surgical patients in cardiogenic shock, and bridge patients with end-stage heart failure to their ultimate goal of heart transplantation, all in one institution, by one closely knit team, with excellent results.”   Such technology also will enhance MUSC’s reputation as a top national heart and vascular center when a new facility is completed next year.   “This is important, because as organ distribution criteria change to favor transplantation of patients of the highest acuity (i.e. on VAD assistance), increasing numbers of patients will require ventricular assist in order to maintain our already excellent transplantation program, not to mention the possibility of further expanding the program to include destination therapy,” Ikonomidis said.   Now healthy, Thomas Fincher of Myrtle Beach holds his granddaughter during the Nov. 1 award ceremony. MUSC has used VAD on 40 patients since MUSC’s Jackson Crumbley, M.D., chief of the Thoracic Organ Transplantation Service, became the first in the world to successfully operate on a patient using the AB5000 model. That patient, Thomas Fincher of Myrtle Beach, attended the award ceremony Nov. 1.   Seventy-eight percent of MUSC’s patients who were treated with the device have recovered. The standard established by Abiomed is a 50-percent survival rate. Much of the credit for this extraordinary success rate not only went to the surgeons and cardiologists, but also to MUSC’s nursing staff and perfusion school, which is among the top two in the nation. The perfusion program helps train device managers.   “The people that have helped us succeed are not all advanced degree professionals,” Crumbley said, “but those in cardiac nursing. We have the best nurses in the hospital, and they have been absolutely essential to this program.”   He praised the device managers who monitor the VAD and other devices. “They are truly and absolutely responsible for saving lives. …They do heroic work and they are always there,” Crumbley said.   With established protocols and criteria for managing these patients, MUSC also has become a training center for other open heart medical centers in South Carolina. Friday, Nov. 10, 2006 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.