Surgery – Cardiac augmentation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-21
2002-06-18
Jastrzab, Jeffrey R. (Department: 3737)
Surgery
Cardiac augmentation
C600S037000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06406420
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention pertains to the field of apparatus for treatment of a failing heart. In particular, the apparatus and its related methods of the present invention is directed toward reducing the wall stress in the failing heart. The present invention further includes methods and devices for improving cardiac function in hearts having discrete zones of infarcted tissue. Such methods and devices reduce the radius of curvature and/or alter the geometry or shape of the infarcted tissue and adjacent regions to thereby reduce wall stress on the heart it and improve the heart's pumping performance.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The syndrome of heart failure is a common course for the progression of many forms of heart disease. Heart failure may be considered to be the condition in which an abnormality of cardiac function is responsible for the inability of the heart to pump blood at a rate commensurate with the requirements of the metabolizing tissues, or can do so only at an abnormally elevated filling pressure. There are many specific disease processes that can lead to heart failure. Typically these processes result in dilatation of the left ventricular chamber. Etiologies that can lead to this form of failure include idiopathic, valvular, viral, and ischemic cardiomyopathies.
The process of ventricular dilatation is generally the result of chronic volume overload or specific damage to the myocardium. In a normal heart that is exposed to long term increased cardiac output requirements, for example, that of an athlete, there is an adaptive process of slight ventricular dilation and muscle myocyte hypertrophy. In this way, the heart fully compensates for the increased cardiac output requirements. With damage to the myocardium or chronic volume overload, however, there are increased requirements put on the contracting myocardium to such a level that this compensated state is never achieved and the heart continues to dilate.
The basic problem with a large dilated left ventricle is that there is a significant increase in wall tension and/or stress both during diastolic filling and during systolic contraction. In a normal heart, the adaptation of muscle hypertrophy (thickening) and ventricular dilatation maintain a fairly constant wall tension for systolic contraction. However, in a failing heart, the ongoing dilatation is greater than the hypertrophy and the result is a rising wall tension requirement for systolic contraction. This is felt to be an ongoing insult to the muscle myocyte resulting in further muscle damage. The increase in wall stress is also true for diastolic filling. Additionally, because of the lack of cardiac output, there is generally a rise in ventricular filling pressure from several physiologic mechanisms. Moreover, in diastole there is both a diameter increase and a pressure increase over normal, both contributing to higher wall stress levels. The increase in diastolic wall stress is felt to be the primary contributor to ongoing dilatation of the chamber.
Prior treatments for heart failure associated with such dilatation fall into three general categories. The first being pharmacological, for example, diuretics and ACE inhibitors. The second being assist systems, for example, pumps. Finally, surgical treatments have been experimented with, which are described in more detail below.
With respect to pharmacological treatments, diuretics have been used to reduce the workload of the heart by reducing blood volume and preload. Clinically, preload is defined in several ways including left ventricular end diastolic pressure (LVEDP), or indirectly by left ventricular end diastolic volume (LVEDV). Physiologically, the preferred definition is the length of stretch of the sarcomere at end diastole. Diuretics reduce extra cellular fluid which builds in congestive heart failure patients increasing preload conditions. Nitrates, arteriolar vasodilators, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors have been used to treat heart failure through the reduction of cardiac workload by reducing afterload. Afterload may be defined as the tension or stress required in the wall of the ventricle during ejection. Inotropes function to increase cardiac output by increasing the force and speed of cardiac muscle contraction. These drug therapies offer some beneficial effects but do not stop the progression of the disease.
Assist devices include mechanical pumps. Mechanical pumps reduce the load on the heart by performing all or part of the pumping function normally done by the heart. Currently, mechanical pumps are used to sustain the patient while a donor heart for transplantation becomes available for the patient.
There are at least four surgical procedures for treatment of heart failure associated with dilatation: 1) heart transplantation; 2) dynamic cardiomyoplasty; 3) the Batista partial left ventriculectomy; and 4) the Jatene and Dor procedures for ischemic cardiomyopathy, discussed in more detail below. Heart transplantation has serious limitations including restricted availability of organs and adverse effects of immunosuppressive therapies required following heart transplantation. Cardiomyoplasty involves wrapping the heart with skeletal muscle and electrically stimulating the muscle to contract synchronously with the heart in order to help the pumping function of the heart. The Batista partial left ventriculectomy surgically remodels the left ventricle by removing a segment of the muscular wall. This procedure reduces the diameter of the dilated heart, which in turn reduces the loading of the heart. However, this extremely invasive procedure reduces muscle mass of the heart.
One form of heart failure, ischemic cardiomyopathy, results from the formation of one or more zones of ischemia, or infarction, of the myocardium. Infarction occurs when blood supply to the heart tissue has been obstructed resulting in a region of tissue that loses its ability to contract (referred to as infarcted tissue). The presence of infarcted tissue may lead to three conditions in the heart causing cardiac malfunction. These conditions are ventricular aneurysms (ventricular dyskinesia), non-aneurysmal ischemic or infarcted myocardium (ventricular akinesia), and mitral regurgitation.
Ventricular aneurysms typically result from a transmural myocardial infarction, frequently due to the occlusion of the left anterior descending artery (LAD). This results in a transmural infarcted region of the apical portion of the left ventricle and anterior septal. A ventricular aneurysm is formed when the infarction weakens the heart wall to such an extent that the tissue stretches and thins, causing the left ventricular wall to expand during systole (dyskinesia).
FIG. 55
illustrates a ventricular aneurysm A occurring in the apical region of left ventricle LV. As shown by the shaded region in
FIG. 55
, aneurysm A includes infarcted tissue
24
that results in a reduced wall thickness when compared to adjacent non-infarcted wall regions, as shown by the unshaded regions in FIG.
55
.
FIG. 55
also shows the septal wall S partially infarcted, again shown by the shaded region. The ventricular aneurysm also may be dyskinetic, meaning that when the ventricle contracts, the aneurysm further dilates, or bulges, outward. The infarcted region of the septal wall S also may be particularly dyskinetic, especially in the case of the infarcted tissue having progressed to an aneurysm.
The bulge resulting from an aneurysm can have several serious effects on the heart and its performance that can lead to in both morbidity and mortality. For example, because the bulge creates a geometric abnormality as well as a region of non-contracting tissue, thrombosis is more likely to occur in that region. Thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot, or thrombus, that can cause other medical complications, such as a stroke. An ischemic stroke is a blockage of blood flow to the brain that occurs when the thrombus breaks free and is ejected out of the ventricle.
Another serious effect this bulging can have is the deni
Kallok Michael J.
Keith Peter T.
McCarthy Patrick M.
Mortier Todd J.
Schweich, Jr. Cyril J.
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP
Jastrzab Jeffrey R.
Myocor, Inc.
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