Skeletal muscle for cardiac assist, including cardiomyoplasty and skeletal muscle ventricles, shows promise for augmenting cardiac function despite being in early stages of development.
Remains investigational for advanced HF; leaves open further development of skeletal muscle assist pending controlled trials.
Although current efforts at cardiomyoplasty have not produced the anticipated clear-cut benefits in cardiac function, replicable improvements in subjective function have resulted. Efforts at optimizing conditioning protocols, skeletal muscle strength, and timing of skeletal muscle assist devices should provide further improvements in cardiomyoplasty. Further work with alternative ways of configuring skeletal muscle for cardiac assist is extremely promising. SMVs, in particular, offer potential to augment cardiac function directly or indirectly powering pumps. Work in all these areas is in early stages, but the future is bright.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Letsou et al. (1995) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: