Researcher’s at UT Southwestern Medical Center are studying a new device to treat chronic congestive heart failure. The system uses catheter’s and a very small external pump.
The Cancion System, manufactured by Orqis Medical Corp., is a pump device that is introduced into the body via catheters inserted through tiny incisions in the groin. Once placed, the pump draws blood from the patient’s iliac artery – located in the pelvis – into a small external pump. From there, the blood goes through another catheter placed in the heart’s descending aorta, where it is re-introduced for continuous blood flow.
Thus it will improve …read more

An engineer in California got the gift he was waiting for. Mike Iwuchukwu was placed on the heart transplant list 5 years ago. He had a condition called noncompaction syndrome, where the heart appears almost sponge like.
This past Monday, officials at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in California announced that Mr. Iwuchukwu received his second chance on life. He received his heart in March, but the transplanted organ had been down this road before. You see, this particular heart had already been donated to someone who died of non cardiac complications.
There have been previous cases of patients receiving …read more