Panel Urges Continued U.S. Funding of Artificial Heart Program

The federal government should continue funding the artificial heart program, including the fully implantable total artificial heart, because the research “may benefit patients who would otherwise die,” an advisory panel urged Tuesday.

A special committee of the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, said that human heart transplantation is the treatment of choice for heart failure but that the limited number of donor hearts--about 2,000 a year--makes it imperative to develop alternative technologies.

“Heart disease is the leading cause of death in this country,” said Dr. John R. Hogness, president emeritus of the University of Washington and chairman of the panel. “Keeping that in mind, we feel strongly that work . . . should continue into 1995 or 1996, when more data are available.”

About 700,000 Americans die of heart disease every year; about half of them from heart failure. The committee said that an estimated 35,000 to 75,000 patients a year “need some kind of mechanical support” and that about 20% of these patients would be candidates for the total artificial heart.

Unlike earlier devices--such as the Jarvik heart that was first implanted in dentist Barney Clark in 1983--which required a cumbersome tether line to an outside power source--the newest devices would be powered by electricity transmitted across the skin in a transformer-like arrangement. The patient would carry rechargeable batteries.

The advisory panel recommended that the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute continue funding the program at least for several more years at $5 million to $10 million a year.

The National Academy of Sciences is a congressionally chartered, private organization that advises the federal government on matters of science and technology.

In 1988, the heart institute halted money for research into the total artificial heart, believing that the money could be better spent for research into a rapidly developing device that assists the heart. But the decision was rescinded shortly thereafter under pressure from Congress.

Human studies of the first fully implantable ventricular assist device are to begin in 1992 using an implant developed by the Novacor Division of Baxter Healthcare Corp. of Oakland, Calif.

Such devices are already in use on a short-term basis in patients awaiting heart transplants.

However, for long-term use, they would be implanted in patients needing support for one ventricle.

The average human-heart transplant costs about $100,000.