“The heart is a strong and muscular organ that is about the size of a fist in adults. It pumps blood throughout the body and is located behind the breastbone between the lungs. Deoxygenated blood flows from the heart to the lungs where it gives up carbon dioxide and is freshly oxygenated. From there, the blood returns to the heart and is pumped to the rest of the body.”
Learn more from UNOS, here.
“A heart transplant may be the most dramatic surgery done in the operating room. Each step takes great precision, from the quick, careful journey to retrieve the heart to the preparation of the recipient, who may be gravely ill and bedridden. The best part is the outcome soon after the transplant, when the patient goes home and starts returning to his or her life—whether that means getting married, having babies, running in marathons, or simply breathing massive sighs of relief while strolling around the neighborhood without having to periodically stop to catch a breath.”
Read all 8 here.
“Twelve years ago, Ava Kaufman was fighting for her life. Now, thanks to a donor heart and successful organ transplant, she’s alive — and saving others.
“My life changed on a dime,” said Kaufman, who was a professional dancer and black belt in taekwondo when an autoimmune disease went undiagnosed and wiped out her muscular system. She ultimately ended up on life support in intensive care with organ failure.
“I went from living this big life to not knowing how I was going to survive.”
In what she calls a series of small miracles, Kaufman was given a second chance at life.”
Read the full story, here.
“Patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) may increase their lifespan if they take the SGLT2 inhibitor dapagliflozin (Farxiga) over the long term, a statistical modeling study showed.
Mean event-free survival was an estimated 8.3 years in a patient with HFrEF who started dapagliflozin at age 65. As a similar patient on standard therapy alone would only be expected to live free from heart failure events for another 6.2 years, this represented an event-free survival time gain of 2.1 years (P=0.002).”
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“A surgical team at Duke University Hospital, led by Drs. Jacob Schroder and Carmelo Milano, successfully implanted a new-generation artificial heart in a 39-year-old man with heart failure, becoming the first center in North America to perform the procedure.
The artificial heart was developed by CARMAT and has been studied in Europe, where it is approved for use. Last year, the company received FDA approval to begin studies in the U.S. to potentially enroll 10 patients with end-stage biventricular heart failure. The study will evaluate whether the artificial heart is a viable option as a life-saving step before transplant.”
Read more, here.
The Smidt Heart Institute, Home of the Nation’s No. 1 Adult Heart Transplant Program, Uses Transmedics Organ Care System (OCS) to Grow Geographic Area of Service, Enabling More Lifesaving Organ Transplants
Dominic Emerson, MD, and Pedro Catarino, MD, both transplant surgeons with the Smidt Heart Institute, know how to be spontaneous. At any given moment, they can get the call that a donor heart or lungs are available, requiring them to quickly board a private aircraft to procure the vital organs.
Until recently, those flights were quick jaunts lasting no more than four hours—the time a donor heart can survive on ice. Now that is all changing, thanks to a medical device called the OCS Heart, or “Heart in a Box,” which enables transplant surgeons to travel to much farther destinations to procure lifesaving organs by acting as a miniature intensive care unit that keeps the heart alive.
“Cedars-Sinai has the biggest adult heart transplant program in the world and takes on some of the most complex surgical cases,” said Emerson, associate surgical director of heart transplant and mechanical circulatory support and surgical co-director of the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit at Cedars-Sinai. “The Heart in a Box technology is helping break down a major barrier of transplantation, ultimately offering many patients a second chance at life.”
Read more, here.
“Jim Gleason, National President of Transplant Recipients International Organization (TRIO), discusses what organ transplant patients are experiencing during the pandemic, and some tips they ought to consider to help ease some of the burden.
Mr. Gleason also discusses his role in the development of the recently released AlloCare app is in the AppStore, to help post-transplant recipients navigate their day-to-day health.”
Read the full interview here.
“On Oct. 28, two new diagnosis codes for lung candidates and two new diagnosis codes for heart candidates will be added to UNetSM. Additionally, there will be an update to an existing code available for heart candidates. The purpose of adding these options is to specify when COVID-19 related organ failure is the cause for lung and heart candidate listings.”
Read the full update by UNOS, here.
“In his interview with NewsNation, he explained how Roberto Cuebas’ death gave him life. He also discussed a new app called AlloCare, to be released soon, and how the technology could help patents in the care regimen”
Read the full article and watch the interview here.