What is the splanchnic bed?
The splanchnic bed consists of the organs in the abdomen, including the liver, spleen, stomach and intestines. Together these organs hold up to 50% of the body’s blood volume.
What’s its role in heart failure?
During exercise or stress, the sympathetic nervous system sends signals to the splanchnic bed via the greater splanchnic nerve. This causes the vessels to constrict, shifting blood into central circulation, including the lungs and the heart.
In heart failure, the sympathetic nervous system is chronically “on.” This results in chronic constriction of the splanchnic organs and increases in blood volume in the heart. This stresses the heart and causes disease progression.
What does SAVM do?
In the SAVM procedure, the right greater splanchnic nerve is ablated using a small catheter inserted through the groin.
This ablation attempts to normalize sympathetic nervous activity, with the intention to shift blood volume from the heart back to the splanchnic bed, reducing pressures in the heart1.
What is the SAVM procedure like?
The procedure is minimally invasive and implant free. It typically takes less than an hour and patients are frequently able to go home the same day.
How is SAVM different from current treatments?
Standard treatments for heart failure mainly focus on improving pumping function and managing fluid overload.
Yet there’s new evidence that shows it’s not just fluid retention causing heart failure — it’s volume redistribution as well2. SAVM attempts to address this root cause of heart failure, rather than the symptoms.
Who might benefit?
Patients with heart failure continue to have poor quality of life and high mortality rate – with 50% mortality at 5 years3.
SAVM is intended to help patients with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). These patients make up almost 50% of all 6 million heart patients in America, and they have few approved treatment options4 5.
What is the Axon Ablation System?
The Axon System is used to perform the SAVM procedure. The catheter is a small 7F system that can be easily delivered over the wire into the femoral vein and navigated to the target vessel. Irrigation during energy delivery ensures consistent heat transfer and legion development.
1 Fudim M et al. J Am Heart Assoc. 2017 Aug 17;6(8)
2 Fudim M et al. J. Am. Heart Assoc. 2017;6(8)
3 Heidenreich PA, et al. Circ Heart Fail. 2013 May; 6(3): 606–619
4 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics – 2021 Update. Circulation. 2021 Feb 23; 143(8).
5 Málek F et al. Eur J Heart Fail. 2021 Jul;23(7):1134-1143.
