DuraHeart magnetically levitated centrifugal left ventricular assist system for advanced heart failure patients.

The implantable left ventricular assist system (LVAS) using pulsatile pump technology has become an established therapeutic option for advanced heart failure patients. However, there have been technological limitations in some older designs, including a high incidence of infection and mechanical failures associated with moving parts, and the large size of both implantable pump and percutaneous cable. A smaller rotary blood pump emerged as a possible alternative to a large pulsatile pump to overcome some of these limitations. The technological advancement that defines the third-generation LVAS was the elimination of all mechanical contacts between the impeller and the drive mechanism. The DuraHeart LVAS is the world's first third-generation implantable LVAS to obtain market approval (CE-mark), which combines a centrifugal pump and active magnetic levitation. The initial clinical experience with the DuraHeart LVAS in Europe demonstrated that it provided significantly improved survival (85% at 6 months and 79% at 1 year), reduced adverse event rates and long-term device reliability (freedom from device replacement at 2 years: 96 +/- 3%) over pulsatile LVAS.