Prisma Health is using the world’s first FDA-approved heart failure (HF) device to use neuromodulation – the power of the brain and nervous system – to improve the symptoms of patients with systolic heart failure. This advanced therapy was designed to treat HF patients who have had little to no success with other proven treatment options.
My name is Patrick mccann. I'm the heart failure Director of the Advanced Heart Health Center in Columbia, South Carolina guideline, direct medical therapy or GDMT produces significant improvements in quantity of life. However, they are not really great improvements in overall exercise capacity when patients are on therapy, some heart failure, patients will benefit from device therapy. Certainly implantable cardio defibrillators or IC DS are useful in reducing sudden cardiac death for heart failure patients as well as cardiac resynchronization therapy. Unfortunately, there are only a small number of patients that qualify by the current guidelines for cardiac resynchronization therapy or C RT therapy. Despite the significant advances in medical therapy and device therapy for heart failure patients, there are significant number of patients who still have to live with reduced quality of life. Consequently, devices have been developed to target heart failure from a different perspective. Most recently, the Bear stem device is a neuromodulation therapy that helps improve quality of life for heart failure patients in patients with heart failure, the autonomic nervous system is imbalanced and there is too high of a sympathetic tone. The bear stem device seeks to restore balance for patients with heart failure to reduce their symptoms and improve their overall quality of life. The device is very straightforward. It's a simple procedure that takes approximately 30 minutes to implant patients can be discharged home the same day. It requires two small incisions for the placement of the device and there is no part of the device that is intravascular. The studies regarding the besom device showed that there were significant improvements in multiple areas for patients with heart failure including exercise capacity, quality of life score and reduction in overall cardiac biomarkers. Patients on current medical therapy and or device therapy for heart failure have modest improvements in their overall exercise capacity. The bear stem neuromodulation device has shown us to be significantly impactful in increasing exercise capacity for our patients with heart failure, thus, improving their ability to live more with less symptoms. Patients to be considered for bear stem have an NYH A class three functional capacity with an left ventricular ejection fraction of less than or equal to 35% and an NT pro B and P of less than 1600 they are not candidates for C RT therapy. Overall, medical therapy remains the cornerstone of heart failure treatment. In addition, if patients are candidates for C RT therapy, they should have the device implanted. However, there are a substantial number of patients who cannot achieve maximally tolerated doses of medical therapy or not candidates for C RT therapy. Those patients should certainly be considered for bars in therapy to improve their overall quality of life with heart failure.
