Severe Heart Failure: Don’t Give Up and Visit Artificial Heart Clinic!

(Samsung Medical Center)

- SMC has opened the first artificial heart clinic in Korea.

- The Clinic is run in multidisciplinary cooperation of the Department of Cardiology,

the Division of Cardiosurgery and Korea’s only artificial heart coordinator team.

- SMC uses the 3rd-generation LVAD and has been most successful in artificial heart implantation in Korea.

SMC has opened the Artificial Heart Clinic for the first time in Korea.

Artificial heart implantation can be a good option for patients with severe and chronic heart failure

who have given up treatment as it is no longer treatable with drugs or surgery.

At SMC’s Artificial Heart Clinic, a team of cardiology specialists, cardiosurgeons, and Korea’s only artificial heart coordinators

handles a comprehensive process from diagnosis to surgery and pre- and post-implantation care.

SMC successfully performed 2nd- and 3rd-generation LVAD (left ventricular assist device) implantation

for the first time in Korea in 2012 and last year, respectively.

This year, it succeeded in its third 3rd-generation LVAD implantation that is more improved than its 1st and 2nd generations.

Its size has become smaller and the risks of infection and bleeding have been minimized.

This new model has been approved since 2014 in Korea for treatment use.

So far, Korea has seen less than ten implantations. SMC not only succeeded in it for the first time in the country

but also has successfully performed six operations so far as a leader of artificial heart implantation.

An 80-year old female patient visited the Clinic and received the 3rd-generation LVAD implantation last October.

She said, “I’ve been suffering from many conditions and as a complication, my heart got worse.

I couldn’t try heart transplantation because I’m too old and it requires immunosuppressant.

Then, my doctor recommended the artificial heart.

At first, I was afraid and couldn’t stop worrying even after the surgery, but now I can leave my bed and walk again.

I feel like I just started a new life.”

Prof. Yang Hyun Cho who is in charge of the surgery part at the Clinic said,

“There’s a belief that artificial heart implantation is expensive and rarely successful, and its awareness is low.

So, the number of cases in Korea is very low.

However, SMC has clinical experience and infrastructure that dispels the widespread misunderstanding.

So, please don’t give up and visit us.”

The Artificial Heart Clinic is open every Friday morning and afternoon.

2016.06.23