New heart pump shows promise.

• Position: Birth Defects - Mark Rodefeld's medical device

A congenital heart surgeon--and inventor--has been awarded $2.100.000 to continue development of a heart pump being designed to combat a form of congenital heart disease that is the leading cause of death from birth defects in the first year of a child's life. Mark Rodefeld will use funding from the National Institutes of Health's National Heart Lung, and Blood Institute to develop further a new type of blood pump that uses a spinning disk to pull blood from the veins and push it into the arteries of children and adults born with only one functioning ventricle.

Just 50-70% of infants born with univentricular circulation survive the three open-heart surgeries required in the most common treatment, the Fontan procedures. The cost of the first few months of intensive care hospitalization for an infant born with the defect often exceeds $1,000.000. In addition, those fortunate enough to survive face lifelong disability with no comprehensive therapeutic treatment.

Rodefeld says the grant will support development of the viscous impeller pump through animal testing (one of the requisite phases prior to human trials), Food and Drug Administration approval, and commercial development. "It's a complete new device, unlike any other that exists, so we expect the burden of proof to be high, but we believe that, in patients with univentricular Fontan circulations--young and old--this safe, simple, and reliable method to augment blood flow will address their unresolved health needs."

...