Bridge to Heart Transplantation With the HeartMate Device in Gothenburg, Sweden

Patients rapidly deteriorating while waiting for heart transplantation present a major problem. Our strategy for this entity is the HeartMate left ventricular assist device (LVAD) VELVAS, an electrically driven implantable LVAD. Herein we report our initial experience. The medical records of all the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Transplantation proceedings 2005-10, Vol.37 (8), p.3321-3322
Main Authors: Liden, H., Wierup, P., Westerberg, M., Nilsson, F., Wiklund, L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Defibrillators, Implantable
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Fundamental immunology
Heart Diseases - surgery
Heart Diseases - therapy
Heart Transplantation - statistics & numerical data
Heart-Assist Devices
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Retrospective Studies
Surgery (general aspects). Transplantations, organ and tissue grafts. Graft diseases
Sweden
Tissue, organ and graft immunology
Waiting Lists
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Patients rapidly deteriorating while waiting for heart transplantation present a major problem. Our strategy for this entity is the HeartMate left ventricular assist device (LVAD) VELVAS, an electrically driven implantable LVAD. Herein we report our initial experience. The medical records of all the patients who received HeartMate LVAS at our institution were reviewed. From January 1997 through May 2004, 19 patients received a HeartMate. The mean age was 39 (15 to 61) years and 84% were men. The diagnoses were: dilated cardiomyopathy ( n = 8), ischemic heart disease ( n = 6), myocarditis ( n = 3), congenital heart disease ( n = 1), and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy ( n = 1). Mean time on LVAD was 113 (10 to 353) days. Ten patients were discharged from the hospital to their homes awaiting transplant or recovery. Three patients showed recovery of heart function and were subsequently weaned from mechanical support. Thirteen patients underwent heart transplantation. Three patients died during LVAD treatment. Major adverse events occurred in nine patients, including severe right heart failure ( n = 3), severe bleeding ( n = 3), stroke ( n = 1), hepatic failure ( n = 1), and septicemia ( n = 2). Nine of the 13 transplanted patients are alive and well today. HeartMate LVAS is a valuable option for patients rapidly deteriorating while awaiting a heart transplant. Our results are comparable with those reported from larger centers.
ISSN:0041-1345
1873-2623
DOI:10.1016/j.transproceed.2005.09.008