Earlier Pump Implantation Better for Heart Failure Patients

Research suggests that physicians should consider giving heart failure patients left ventricular assist devices while they are still relatively healthy.

Published: January 14, 2016

When heart failure advances to the point that an artificial pump is needed to assist the heart with its job of providing oxygenated blood to the rest of the body, doctors have a proven therapy to help patients live longer and better. A left ventricular assist device (LVAD) used to be seen as a bridge-to-transplant therapy to help patients survive while they waited for a heart transplant.