What is a "left ventricular assist device" and what does it treat?

What is a "left ventricular assist device" and what does it treat?

A left ventricular assist device is a mechanical device that can substitute for a good bit of the pumping function of the left ventricle, the main pumping chamber of the heart. That chamber of the heart, this big, muscular organ, squeezes and pushes blood out through the aorta to the rest of the body, to the brain, to the kidneys, to the muscles, everywhere in the body. This is the part of the heart that is often affected by heart attack, by narrowings in the coronary arteries. If it's affected so much that it really can't provide the blood flow that the body needs, then a left ventricular assist device, which often takes blood out of the ventricle into a little pump and pumps it back into the aorta, lets the heart rest so that it can recover, but more often is used while a patient is waiting for transplant but is so sick that even with medications they can't get along by themselves. So it's a bridge to transplant.