J&J’s Abiomed heart pump reduces heart attack deaths during trial

a Abiomed’s controversial heart pump reduced deaths in patients with serious heart attacks, according to a long-awaited randomized trial presented at the American College of Cardiology conference and published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Sunday.

The study, which took 10 years to complete, followed 355 patients for 180 days in Denmark, Germany and Britain who entered hospital with a heart attack and dangerously low blood flow, known as cardiogenic shock. Half of the patients received standard care, which typically included medication and included life support about 20% of the time, and the other half received Abiomed’s left-sided heart pump, called the Impella, for 48 hours.

About 46% of patients died in the device group, while 59% died in the standard care group. The research team found that 24% of patients in the device group had complications, including major bleeding and the need for kidney therapy, compared to 6% in the control group.