Heart Failure
In heart failure, the muscles on either side of the heart beat out of synchronization. This means that instead of efficiently pumping blood from the heart to the body when the heart "beats", the heart ejects only a fraction of the blood it contains and the rest pools in the heart, causing swelling of the heart and a debilitating deficiency of oxygen in the patient's body. The pooling of blood in the heart can also lead to formation of clots followed by stroke or sudden cardiac death.
Treatment Options:
The Stereotaxis Magnetic Navigation System is particularly well suited to assist the physician in positioning the pacing lead on the left side of the heart. By enabling precise, computerized magnetic control of the tip of the guidewire, magnetic navigation can provide the physician with the ability to access and evaluate multiple locations in the heart to determine the best place to put the CRT lead, thus potentially improving patient outcomes.
Stereotaxis’ magnetic CRT procedures bring precise direct control of the working end of the guidewire to potentially provide the following benefits:
- Increased likelihood that eligible patients can be successfully treated interventionally
- Shorter, simpler CRT procedures with better outcomes and less use of ionizing contrast
- Optimal lead placement resulting in better long term response rates
Heart failure is a chronic disease that requires intensive treatment for the rest of a patient’s life. Patients with heart failure are generally placed on two or more medications, such as beta blockers or angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. These medications help to manage heart failure, although hospitalization is often required when symptoms become more severe.
In about half of heart failure patients, the left and right sides of the left ventricle of the heart do not contract at the same time. Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), or bi-ventricular pacing, involves using a guidewire threaded through the groin to place a pacemaker lead into the coronary venous system of the heart to help “resynchronize” the heartbeat. These devices have been shown to improve patients’ survival and quality of life by enabling the heart to pump more effectively and regularly. Many patients can benefit from CRT and return to normal lifestyles. However, roughly 30% of patients do not respond to this therapy, often due to the difficulty in placing the pacemaker lead into an optimal location.
Patients whose condition continues to worsen may require surgery. These procedures may include the implantation of a ventricular assist device (VAD), which is an external pump to help the heart pump blood to the body. Heart transplant may be required for patients who do not respond to drug therapy or surgical intervention.
