MUSC listed as one of the best heart centers using new device

The Medical University of South Carolina was chosen one of the four best among 700 open-heart centers nationally that use the Abiomed Inc.’s Ventricular Assist Device.

MUSC received the Center of Excellence designation by Abiomed, maker of medical products designed to help people survive severe heart conditions.

The Food and Drug Administration-approved AB5000 VAD device pumps blood in place of a still-beating weak or damaged heart until the heart recovers or until a transplant heart is located. The device also enables the patient to gain strength, which helps the health and function of the patient’s other vital organs, said John S. Ikonomidis, surgical director of MUSC’s Cardiac Transplant Program.

MUSC has used the VAD on 40 patients since Jackson Crumbley, chief of MUSC Thoracic Organ Transplantation Service, became the first in the world to successfully operate on a patient using the AB5000 model. Almost 80% of MUSC patients who were treated with the device have recovered. The standard for the technology is a 50% survival rate.