A new device that synchronizes the pumping action of the heart's two bottom chambers offers individuals with heart failure a way to stop the heart from wearing itself out. Luke's Medical Center. The device is implanted under the skin near the collarbone with electrical wires or leads threaded through a vein from the pacemaker to the heart where they are attached to both right and left ventricle and the right atrium. The device provides electrical stimulation that precisely synchronizes the pumping of blood into and out of the heart via the right and left ventricle, increasing the pumping efficiency of the heart, according to Dr. Sergio Pinski, a cardiologist and electrophysiologist who implants the device. The device is unique in its ability to provide electrical pulse to the left as well as the right chambers of the heart.
Conventional pacemakers provide electrical pacing only to the right side of the heart.
In people with heart failure, an unbalanced, ineffective pumping condition ultimately wears out the heart. The study will evaluate whether the device affects the exercise performance, quality of life, length and frequency of hospitalization, and the survival of the heart failure patients who participate in the study. An earlier European study of the device showed promising results. It increased the effectiveness of the heart's pumping action and significantly increased the ability of patients to walk and conduct routine activities. Congestive heart failure, which affects nearly 5 million people in the United States, is the progressive deterioration of the ability of the heart to pump blood.