Ventricular Assist Devices  (VAD)

Each year, Arkansas Children’s Heart Center sees children who are experiencing various degrees of heart failure. It can be an extremely frightening and emotional time.

Meet the Team

Arkansas Children’s is a leading expert in coagulation therapy for patients with a VAD, vital to the success of a patient’s outcome. In 2007, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) granted conditional approval to Berlin Heart for a study to evaluate the safety and probable benefit of using the EXCOR^® Pediatric VAD to support pediatric patients. Initially, only 10 centers were chosen from the U.S. and Canada to participate. In 2011, the FDA granted approval of the Berlin Heart for all centers in North America. As of 2015, Arkansas Children’s has implanted 51 Berlin Heart VADs, the most of any institution in the country.