New Hope for Children with Heart Failure

PediPump is a new ventricular assist device (VAD), developed specifically for the treatment of end-stage heart failure in children. This rotary dynamic VAD is much smaller than the traditional ones, but it has demonstrated excellent hemodynamic performance and has a versatile design that allows for use in a variety of clinical settings.

A limited number of options is available for children as far as mechanical circulatory support for the treatment of end-stage heart failure is concerned. The vast majority of VAD’s designed for adults are not suitable for use in children. According to its designers, PediPump provides support for the entire range of patient sizes encountered in pediatrics. Given its dimensions, 7 mm x 70 mm, it is even suitable for newborn circulatory support.

"Historically, children have had few options for mechanical support of the failing heart ... The experimental development of the PediPump and similar devices will give new hope to children with heart failure", states Dr. Brian Duncan, lead researcher in the program that developed the PediPump. This program was a partnership between clinicians at The Children's Hospital at the Cleveland Clinic and researchers in Biomedical Engineering, The Lerner Research Institute of the Cleveland Clinic.

The status report on this new device, by Duncan et al, was published in this month’s issue of the journal "Artificial Organs", the official peer reviewed journal of the International Federation for Artificial Organs, the International Faculty for Artificial Organs, and the International Society for Rotary Blood Pumps.

Researchers plan to further reduce the size of PediPump, to make it a totally implantable pediatric VAD.

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