Mechanical circulatory support

If you have advanced heart failure or are awaiting heart transplant surgery, mechanical assistance may be needed to keep your heart pumping enough blood. Lifesaving mechanical circulatory support (MCS) devices can either temporarily or permanently help maintain proper blood flow by supporting or replacing your heart’s pumping function. These devices offer several key benefits:

• Support better heart function.
• Improve survival rates for people with advanced heart failure.
• Enhance quality of life.
• Aid in heart function recovery in certain patients.

Penn Medicine’s mechanical circulatory support program offers the most innovative heart support options available today. We’re the only center in the region, one of the few nationwide, that uses a minimally invasive approach (lateral thoracotomy) to implant devices in certain patients, improving recovery and delivering excellent surgical outcomes. We also specialize in treating high-risk patients, including those turned away by other hospitals and referred to us for advanced heart failure therapies.

When you choose Penn Medicine for mechanical circulatory support, you’ll benefit from a team with years of experience. As a nationally top-ranked hospital for cardiac care, our heart surgeons perform over 3,000 procedures each year. We work with every major MCS device and offer minimally invasive options.

We’re also known for:

• Treating high-risk patients: With our unmatched expertise, many high-risk patients are referred to us for advanced heart failure therapies when other hospitals are unable to offer treatment.
• Leading the region in ECMO: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a lifesaving therapy for people with complex heart or lung conditions. We are one of the highest-volume centers using ECMO support and offer mobile ECMO to rescue patients too sick to travel.
• Device optimization: We’re the only center in the region that routinely optimizes devices using hemodynamic and echocardiographic data at three and 12 months after surgery. This approach helps your ventricular assist device function at its best. Our proactive method maximizes device support and improves patient symptoms.
• Clinical innovation: We’ve been involved in clinical trials for every major mechanical circulatory support device and continue to lead groundbreaking studies. Our surgeons and cardiologists are national leaders, shaping the design and advancement of MCS therapy in both medical societies and technological development.