The Jarvik 2000® is designed to provide reliable support to the ailing heart for a decade or longer. Accelerated tests of the pump’s bearings show that there is so little wear that the bearings will last decades, so many more years of real-time testing are required to know whether or not the pump will achieve or exceed this challenging design objective. Presently, our longest-sustained patient was supported for over 9 1/2 years and subsequently successfully transplanted, but the ultimate durability of the device remains unknown.
Lifetime Use
Some patients are ineligible for cardiac transplant or may choose to use the Jarvik 2000® as a permanent or lifetime therapy. The Jarvik 2000 Ventricular Assist Device is CE Mark approved for lifetime use in Europe. In the United States, use of the Jarvik 2000 is currently in clinical trials.
Bridge-to-transplant Use
One important use of the Jarvik 2000 that it is designed to provide reliable support to the ailing heart for a decade or longer. Presently, our longest-sustained patient was supported for over 9 1/2 years and subsequently successfully transplanted, but the ultimate durability of the device remains unknown. remains the support of critically ill patients awaiting heart transplants. These patients keep the device only until a suitable donor heart becomes available. However, waiting time is growing longer as the demand for donor hearts increases. Once on the heart transplant waiting list, a patient typically waits months or longer for the transplant to be performed, depending on his or her status on the list, blood type, and other factors.
Bridge-to-recovery Use
The potential for the Jarvik 2000 to provide a bridge to recovery to certain rare but severe heart failure conditions is good. Some patients improve so dramatically while supported by a VAD that a transplant is no longer necessary. The heart rests and heals while the pump keeps running, and eventually the pump can be explanted and the patient removed from the transplant waiting list.