Initially meant to bridge the gap before a heart transplant is performed, today ventricular assist devices (VADs) are increasingly considered ‘a lasting therapy option’, according to Professor Heinrich Schima, Head of the Centre for Medical Physics and Biomedical Technology at the Medical University of Vienna.
You often need the vision of a hypermetropic eagle to find Malta on the world map – even its name fills more space than the representation of the island itself. And yet, in the Eurobarometer 2010 survey, among the recent European Union Member States, the Maltese showed an unusually high level of consent (72%) to organ donation and 77% are willing to donate their own organs, making us a beacon…
In 2008, EU organ transplants totalled 27,809, but, as of 31 December 2008, patients still on waiting lists numbered 63,283 and 3,812 of them died on that list. During 5th World Day and 11th European Day of Organ Donation held in Berlin this October, experts and patients from all over the world met to raise public awareness that, despite international transplants progress and successes, and…
Waiting lists for organ transplants are lengthening in most European countries, forcing the need to increase donations higher up the medical and political agenda, Mark Nicholls reports. Spain continues to lead the way in organ donation with the so-called Spanish Model approach, while other countries, e.g. the UK, are debating whether to adopt 'presumed consent' and an 'opt-out' rather than…
There is a profound difference between the complexity of cosmetic surgery or organ transplant procedures, for example, and other operations. Whilst procedures such as hair transplants or eyelid surgery present an alteration to the owner's body composition and changes to the patient's outlook, those changes were desired and planned for, in the hope that something marvellous will result and so…
Expectations ran high when the German Transplant Law (TPG) was introduced in 1997. The government felt it had done its part to ensure more legal certainty for the donation, removal and transplantation of organs: the population could feel encouraged to sign up for organ donation and was supposed to follow suit. However, this did not occur.
Last week, the Commissioner for Health, Androulla Vassiliou launched the 'Europe for Patients' campaign in Brussels. The campaign highlights the different health policy initiatives the Commission intends to adopt in the coming months. All these initiatives are bound by a common goal: better healthcare for all in Europe.
The ageing population and growing risk factors have made a significant impact on driving up the number of registered heart failure (HF) cases. Existing pharmacological strategies are improving the survival rates of acute and early-stage HF patients, ironically providing a growing body of patients with progression of the disease to HF.
Ventricular assist devices (VAD) have been used since the 1980s, primarily to provide support after cardiac surgery for several days during recovery, or more often to keep patients alive until later heart transplantation (HTx).