An intraaortic balloon pump (IABP) is a device that increases blood flow to the heart muscle and decreases the heart’s workload through a process called counterpulsation. It can produce up to 20 percent of the heart’s workload.

The IABP is placed in the aorta, which is the main artery that carries oxygen-rich blood to the rest of the body. 

Most commonly inserted on a long, thin tube called a catheter, IABPs are regularly used to treat angina, wean patients off the heart-lung machine during open-heart surgery, assist in complicated balloon angioplasty procedures and various other cardiac situations.

This assistance from the IABP can also be life-saving for a patient with severe heart disease or damage, such as following a massive heart attack or while waiting for a heart transplant. With more than 70,000 IABP procedures performed every year, it is the most common circulatory assist device in the United States.

Although the risk of complications from an IABP has dropped in the past 40 years, it still carries some risks to the patient. People are encouraged to speak with their physician about the benefits and risks of this device.