This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by SoRelle, R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by SoRelle, R. Pubmed/NCBI databases Medline Plus Health Information Heart Failure Heart Surgery Related Collections CV surgery: coronary artery disease

(Circulation. 1999;99:845-846.)
© 1999 American Heart Association, Inc.

Cardiovascular News

How to Make A Failing Heart Pump Better

The Batista Procedure and Its Competitors

Ruth SoRelle¹

¹ Circulation Newswriter

More than a year after the Batista procedure jumped into national headlines, experts at the 71st Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association meeting in Dallas, Tex, reported both good and bad news about the radically different surgery. Patrick McCarthy, MD, cardiovascular surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, said 72% of patients who had the procedure have survived 2 years. "The good news is that it works well in some patients," he said. "How often it will work well and how it will last remain undetermined.

"The troublesome news is that it sometimes doesn't work," said McCarthy. One reason is that although the procedure improves the way the heart contracts, it detracts from the muscle's relaxation. In addition, fibrotic hearts will not respond as well with improved contractions. "Sometimes it is just too late for some patients," McCarthy said. He predicted that the Batista procedure will become the Batista concept. Already, he said, one company is developing a device that will simulate the benefits of the operation without opening the chest or discarding heart tissue.

Akira T. Kawaguchi, MD, a Japanese surgeon from Tokai University who learned the procedure from Brazilian surgeon Randas Batista, MD, said the operation is used in his country, where transplant is virtually impossible because of laws governing organ donation. "It is used for socioeconomic reasons in Brazil and social reasons in Japan," said Kawaguchi. Batista, who himself appeared at an AHA press conference, agreed, saying that in the United States, surgery and transplants . . . [Full Text of this Article]