Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia

Biventricular Circulatory Support With Two Miniaturized Implantable Assist Devices

Krabatsch T, Potapov E, Stepanenko A, et al (Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin, Germany) Circulation 124:S179-S186, 2011^§

Abstract

Background

Up to 30% of patients with end-stage heart failure experience biventricular failure that requires biventricular mechanical support. For these patients, only bulky extracorporeal or implantable displacement pumps or the total artificial heart have been available to date, which enables only limited quality of life for the patients. It was our goal to evaluate a method that would allow the use of 2 implantable centrifugal left ventricular assist devices as a biventricular assist system.

Methods and Results

Seventeen patients have been implanted with 2 HeartWare HVAD pumps, 1 as a left ventricular assist device and 1 as a right ventricular assist device. Seventy-seven percent of the patients had idiopathic dilated or ischemic cardiomyopathy. Their age ranged from 29 to 73 years (mean 51.8±14.5 years), and 11 (64.7%) received intravenous catecholamine support preoperatively. The right ventricular assist device pump was implanted into the right ventricular free wall. The afterload of this pump was artificially increased by local reduction of the outflow graft diameter, and the effective length of its inflow cannula was reduced by the addition of two 5-mm silicon suture rings to the original HVAD implantation ring. All right ventricular assist device devices could be operated in appropriate speed ranges and delivered a flow of between 3.0 and 5.5 L/min. Thirty-day survival was 82%, and 59% of the patients could be discharged home after recovering from the operation. There was no clinically relevant hemolysis in any of the patients.

Only gold members can continue reading. Log In or Register to continue

Share this:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related

Related posts:

of change in daily step count over five years with insulin sensitivity and adiposity: population based cohort study of Cancer: The Next Generation Beverages and Risk of Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes: A meta-analysis time and haemodynamic response after thiopental vs. propofol in the elderly: a randomized trial monitoring of neuromuscular block over the orbicularis oris muscle in anesthetized patients receiving vecuronium Is Better Than General Anesthesia During Endovascular Acute Stroke Interventions

Stay updated, free articles. Join our Telegram channel

Join