April 2016. The support hearts that are implanted in the Netherlands come from two different manufacturers: Thoratec / St. Jude Medical / Abbott and HeartWare / Medtronic.
Thoratec's HeartMate II will be implanted from 2006 and HeartWare's HVAD from 2010.
We are now 10 and 6 years later and the developments have not stood still.
Both companies are coming up with a new LVAD that responds as much as possible to the experiences that have been made with the current pumps.
Below the two support hearts that it is about. Click on the images to see the comparison between the old and the new versions of the LVAD.
Thoratec will release the HeartMate 3 as a successor. This pump has been installed in the UMC-Utrecht since November 2015.
HeartWare has developed an even smaller pump as a successor to the HVAD, the MVAD. This support heart is still in the Clinical Triall phase, but according to expectations it will be put into use within the foreseeable future.