Mesh Wrap Helps Enlarged Hearts to Recover

A clinical trial has shown that an investigational sock-like mesh wrap implanted around an enlarged heart is able to reverse the progression of heart failure by providing support and relieving stress. The trial results were announced at the 2004 Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association in New Orleans (LA, USA) in November 2004.

Heart enlargement is a major contributing factor to heart failure. As the heart attempts to supply the body with adequate blood, the stress on the heart builds in a degenerative cycle of muscle damage that often leads to an unhealthy dilation of the heart. An oversized heart cannot efficiently pump blood to meet the body's needs.

The new support device, called CorCap, is the first such device specifically designed to address the problem of heart enlargement. In comparison with control patients, the trial found that CorCap demonstrated sustained improvements in 38% of heart-failure patients, compared to improvements in only 27% treated with the best medical therapy. Also, 45% of patients not treated with CorCap worsened, compared to only 37% of those treated with CorCap. The trial, called the Acorn Trial, involved 300 patients at 29 centers. All had symptomatic heart failure with enlargement of the heart and were being treated with drug therapy, including beta-blockers and angiotension-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors.

"The CorCap cardiac support device helps an enlarged heart recover a more normal size and shape,” explained principal investigator Dr. Douglas Mann of Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, TX, USA). "As a result, patients feel better and require fewer costly medical interventions to treat their heart failure.” CorCap was developed by Acorn Cardiovascular (St. Paul, MN, USA), a medical device company.




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Acorn Cardiovascular