LH - Heart Center - Heart Failure and Transplant Program

The Main Line Health Heart Center at Lankenau Hospital
Heart Failure and Transplant Program

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Heart Failure & Transplant Program: Advancing the Art and Science of Heart Failure TreatmentThe Heart Failure and Transplant Program at Lankenau Hospital brings together a team of nationally respected medical and surgical experts to provide aggressive, individualized treatment for patients with all degrees of heart failure.

Our program is for life
With heart failure, your whole life can be affected. The Heart Failure and Transplant Program offers a multidisciplinary approach that addresses prevention of disease progression, timely intervention, improvement of the patient's quality of life, and comprehensive lifestyle management. Treatment is most effective when you participate actively in your care. Our program also offers education and services on the medical, psychological, financial and other issues related to heart failure.

Your heart is in the best hands
Our widely respected Heart Failure and Transplant team represents years of experience and innovation in heart failure and transplant therapy. Our staff includes doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, psychologists, social workers, and others - all dedicated experts who have extensive backgrounds in the field of heart failure treatment.

An individualized plan of care
Heart failure is a complicated disorder requiring an individualized treatment plan. "At the Heart Center at Lankenau Hospital, we believe the best treatment for heart failure combines sophisticated medical and surgical therapies with nutritional, psychological and rehabilitative care," says Radha Gopalan, MD, Medical Director of Lankenau's Heart Failure and Transplant Program.

Ventricular Assist Devices
Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are implantable pumps that help weakened hearts circulate blood. "First designed as a bridge to transplantation, the devices are now therapies in themselves, providing a permanent alternative to transplantation in many cases," says Louis Samuels, MD, Surgical Director of the Program.

Transplantation
Advances in transplant medicine have expanded the population of patients who may benefit from heart transplantation. Dr. Samuels' career experience includes the insertion of the region's first fully implantable, battery-run artificial heart. Our specially trained transplant team is available 24 hours a day.

"As the only Heart Failure and Transplant Program in suburban Philadelphia, we are providing a new level of excellence in cardiac programs to the region," says Christopher Droogan, DO, Director of Clinical Heart Failure.

Patients benefit from the most advanced medicine, devices and surgeries including:

Cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators (CRT-D) refine current pacemaker technology to assist the heart's main pumping chamber and to sense dangerous heart rhythms. Lankenau was among the first 100 hospitals nationally to receive the new device.

Ventricular remodeling procedures allow surgeons to reshape an enlarged heart.

Outpatient therapy with novel medicines reduces the need for emergency room visits or admissions.

Medical and surgical clinical trials offer advanced treatments in new onset and chronic heart failure.

Dr. Gopalan is an active participant in the FUSION II trial, which is investigating the effect of infusing high risk heart failure patients with Natriuretic peptides on an outpatient basis in an effort to minimize hospitalization and improve survival.

Radha Gopalan, MD, Medical Director

Advances in Heart Transplant and Artificial Heart Technology
Dr. Samuels discusses how treating the underlying cause of heart failure with medication, innovative cardiology therapies, and corrective surgical procedures can often improve a patient's quality of life. View article.

Louis Samuels, MD, Surgical Director

New Treatments Offer Hope: For People with Chronic Heart Failure
Dr. Droogan provides information on new treatments for heart failure. View article.

Christopher Droogan, DO, Director of Clinical Heart Failure

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Contact Us
The Main Line Health Heart Center at Lankenau Hospital 100 Lancaster Avenue Wynnewood, PA 19096 1-866-CALL-MLH

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Main Line Health Heart Center

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