- Title: Researchers in Germany develop world's smallest heart pump
- Date: 9th October 2021
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (OCTOBER 8, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SCIENTIST INSERTING HEART PUMP INTO SHEATH VARIOUS OF SCIENTIST WATCHING ON MONITOR (SOUNDBITE) (English) GENERAL MANAGER AND CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER AT ABIOMED EU, THORSTEN SIESS, SAYING: "The Impella ECP basically changed the paradigm of saying: you go smaller, you pump less, because what the Impella ECP does - and I can show you here the device and also how it functions - the Impella ECP, the pump head, is indeed seven millimetre in diameter, so it's a large pump. For that reason, it can pump full cardiac outputs, three to five litres per minute." VARIOUS OF IMPELLA PUMP IN SOLUTION (SOUNDBITE) (English) GENERAL MANAGER AND CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER AT ABIOMED EU, THORSTEN SIESS, SAYING: "So while the device now goes into the patient, it has been reduced in size from the original seven millimetres down to three millimetres. And now to this end, and maybe I can show you this, I can expand the device back out, and now it's ready to be inserted into the heart." VARIOUS OF SCIENTISTS WORKING ON PUMP (SOUNDBITE) (German) GENERAL MANAGER AND CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER AT ABIOMED EU, THORSTEN SIESS, SAYING: "An interventional cardiologists works through the arteries. He does not open the patient up from the thoracic cage, that's how the surgeon works in order to get to the heart. The cardiologist makes a small incision, either in the groin or in the crook of the arm, and guides a catheter from there into the heart. For that he needs a small incision, and it indeed must be as small as possible because he needs to close that hole again." PUMP (SOUNDBITE) (German) GENERAL MANAGER AND CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER AT ABIOMED EU, THORSTEN SIESS, SAYING: "The special thing about the Impella ECP is that it is 7 millimetres large in its expanded version and with that size we can achieve the full heart volume of 3-5 litres per minute, and still solve the question of how to get a 7 millimetre pump through a 3 millimetre sheath. And the answer to that is, after 21 years of development, to make the pump compressible. And as you can see we can insert the pump through a crimp tool into a so-called shuttle sheath. And we take off the crimp tool and insert the pump into the 3 millimetre wide sheath which is already in the patient."
- Embargoed: 23rd October 2021 09:45
- Keywords: blood heart heart pump veins
- Location: BERLIN, GERMANY / COMPUTER ANIMATION
- City: BERLIN, GERMANY / COMPUTER ANIMATION
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Europe,Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA002EYFRJVF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Researchers in Berlin have developed a heart pump smaller than a pinhead that can pump 3 to 5 litres of blood per minute, a full cardiac output.
Measuring a mere 3 millimetres in diameter, the Impella ECP is the smallest heart pump to date, paving the way for less invasive surgeries when inserting the device into patients.
"The Impella ECP changed the paradigm of saying: you go smaller, you pump less," said Thorsten Siess, General Manager at Abiomed EU, where the device was developed.
The pump head is seven millimetres in diameter before being applied to the patient, Siess explained.
The trick for a better result, which took 20 years of research to develop, is to reduce the size of the device while it is being inserted into the patient and expand it again when going into the heart.
Larger pumps are more efficient as they pump larger quantities of blood throughout the body.
But from a surgical point of view smaller devices come with less invasive procedures. Cardiologists who are not too eager to insert a catheter into the heart could instead run a smaller pump through the arteries.
"An interventional cardiologists works through the arteries. He does not open the patient up from the thoracic cage," Siess told Reuters TV.
"The cardiologist makes a small incision, either in the groin or in the crook of the arm and guides a catheter from there into the heart. For that he needs a small incision, and it indeed must be as small as possible because he needs to close that hole again."
Although the Impella ECP heart pump is limited to hours of support only, it can be used for high-risk interventions, on patients that are considered untreatable, or are already suffering from severe coronary disease.
The Impella ECP is currently undergoing an initial vetting by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its clinical benefits due to its smaller vascular access size and was recently granted breakthrough device status in order to prioritise the review process.
The first patients have already been treated with the Impella ECP heart pump during an early feasibility study, Abiomed said.
Different models of Impella heart pumps have already being used for years.
In Europe Impella pumps are used in over 650 medical centres, and in the U.S. in more that 1,400 medical centres, according to Abiomed. Some 170,000 patients have been treated world-wide.
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