Saint Vincent Hospital

Puts Special Circulatory Device to Work in Cath Lab

Worcester, MA – On February 15, 2007 Saint Vincent Hospital became one of only three hospitals in the state to put the TandemHeart Short-Term Circulatory Support system to use in its interventional catheterization lab. The system helps restore blood circulation through a cardiac catheterization procedure in as little as 30 minutes. The resulting increase in blood flow helps to save vital organs and gives damaged hearts a chance to heal when patients experience acute, life-threatening heart conditions.

“The use of the device during high-risk interventional coronary interventions requires a highly skilled and experienced interventional cardiologist with transseptal experience,” explained Shirley Shea, Saint Vincent Hospital’s Executive Director of Cardiovascular Services, “For that reason, Eddison Ramsaran, M.D. performed the procedure on a 65-year-old male patient with an unprotected left main coronary artery.”

The TandemHeart System provides temporary mechanical circulatory support (for periods up to 6 hours) for procedures not requiring complete cardiopulmonary bypass. By supporting the patient’s circulation, the physician has time to make decisions regarding the appropriate course of treatment.

“A key aspect to this story,” continued Ms. Shea, “is that it took a multidisciplinary team of experts to support Dr. Ramsaran with this procedure. We established an Assist Device Team to work with the vendor for the TandemHeart to receive training and to plan supporting roles before, during, and after the procedure. This included cardiology,

cardiothoracic surgery, vascular surgery, cath lab staff, perfusion, physician assistants, ICU nurses, staff to handle the supplies, and managers.”

The TandemHeart System circulatory support has been used during a variety of indicators, including: acute myocardial infarction; prophylactic insertion for high risk catheter based intervention; and cardiac arrest. 

This system is unique in that, unlike conventional therapies, it is an external circulatory support system that utilizes a centrifugal blood pump which can be inserted percutaneously in the cardiac catheterization lab or the operating room. The TandemHeart is designed to decrease left ventricular wall tension, decrease myocardial oxygen consumption, and decrease left atrial filling pressure while increasing cardiac output.