Artificial Heart and Ventricular-Assist Devices (VADs)

For a patient whose heart has been weakened by disease or injury, a ventricular-assist device, or VAD, may be surgically implanted to help the heart circulate blood more effectively. Also referred to as mechanical circulatory support devices, these artificial hearts are frequently used as bridges to heart transplantation, allowing patients to live in a healthier state until a donor organ becomes available. But today, physicians of the UPMC Artificial Heart Program are pioneering exciting new therapies involving VADs that have lead some patients’ hearts to heal, cancelling the need for a transplant altogether.

UPMC has a long history as a leader in the field of mechanical circulatory support; in 1990, the first patient ever to be discharged from the hospital with a VAD was discharged from UPMC Presbyterian. Since that time, through work at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, UPMC experts have lead clinical and technical innovations that have improved survival rates and quality of life for patients.

UPMC has treated more than 250 patients with mechanical circulatory support devices, and more than 75 percent of those patients have undergone successful heart transplantation. The Artificial Heart Program team of surgeons, cardiologists, nurses, and bioengineers is among the most experienced teams in the world.