By reducing the load on the ventricles the device can then slow or stall heart failure progression, and prolong the life of patients waiting for a heart transplant. Calon Cardio’s device offers a number of advantages over existing LVADs, including less-invasive surgery during implantation, reduced risk of clot formation, and hopefully improved quality of life.
In particular, the MiniVAD system incorporates innovative technologies such as magnetic impeller levitation, which significantly reduces shear damage to the blood cells passing through the system.
The compact design of the MiniVAD combined with this improved blood handling also allows for earlier use of the ventricular assist device in a patient’s treatment pathway. Such early intervention could dramatically improve heart failure survival rates, which currently reveal that 40% of patients die within a year of diagnosis.