Using an artificial heart pump in combination with medication may help patients dying of congestive heart failure, researchers say.

The small British study found the new approach more than tripled the usual recovery rate for severe heart failure.

Heart transplants or artificial heart pumps are used to treat severe heart failure.
(CBC)

The condition, which can be caused by high blood pressure or a viral infection, causes the heart to swell and severely weakens the organ.

In 2002, a Canadian study found 33 per cent of patients died within a year after being hospitalized for heart failure, with older patients faring worse.

In the latest study, eight of 24 patients seemed to recover fully although their hearts were double the normal size. After one year, 11 had recovered enough to have the artificial pump removed.

"Maybe, in some patients, the failing heart is not end-stage after all," Drs. Dale Renlund and Abdallah Kfoury of the Utah Transplantation Affiliated Hospitals said in an editorial accompanying the study in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

The implanted pump, called a left ventricular assist device or LVAD, takes over much of the work of the ailing heart, allowing it to recover.

Thoratec, the manufacturer of the device, helped pay for the study. The cost of the surgery and pump is about $124,000 US. 

Breakthrough concerns

The findings and safety need to be confirmed by larger studies, and one of the drugs tested, Clenbuterol, is not approved for general use in Canada or the U.S.

The study, led by Magdi Yacoub of the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital and Dr. Emma Birks of Imperial College London, used a combination of commonly prescribed heart drugs to shrink the heart and rebuild muscle.

Of the 27 patients who were enrolled in the study, some were excluded because so much of their heart muscle was already dead, the heart failure was caused by a virus or there was a chance they would get better on their own.

One of the 11 artificial pump recipients died immediately after the risky surgery, a second died of cancer, and a third needed a transplant, possibly because of alcohol problems.

On their own, the heart pumps can cause clots or infections in the long term.

The small size of the study and lack of a comparison group cast doubts on the findings, said Dr. Steven Nissen, a heart expert at the Cleveland Clinic.

"It's a very interesting paper," Nissen said. "I have some concerns about whether it's actually going to represent the breakthrough that it seems."