• Konstantin Zhigalov, Marcin Szczechowicz, Ahmed Mashhour, Sabreen Mkalaluh, Dmitrii Safonov, Soslan Enginoev, Jerry Easo, Juergen Ennker, Harald C Eichstaedt, and Alexander Weymann.
• 1 Department of Cardiac Surgery, European Medical School Oldenburg-Groningen, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
• Int J Artif Organs. 2019 Jul 1; 42 (7): 338-346.

BackgroundTo investigate whether preoperative short-term extracorporeal life support therapy in patients undergoing continuous-flow left ventricular assist device implantation has an impact on the outcome regarding survival and adverse events.MethodsBetween January 2011 and May 2018, 100 consecutive patients received HeartMate II, HeartWare, or HeartMate III for end-stage heart failure. Mean age was 64.2 ± 10.3 years. Three patient groups were identified: without preoperative extracorporeal life support (non-extracorporeal life support group, n = 80), with preoperative extracorporeal life support due to postcardiotomy shock after conventional cardiac surgery (postcardiotomy shock group, n = 9), and with preoperative extracorporeal life support without previous surgery (non-postcardiotomy shock group, n = 11). The primary endpoint was overall survival after device implantation. Secondary endpoints were adverse events during the follow-up period.ResultsSurvival was significantly different between the groups (p < 0.05): 30-day, 6-month, and 1-year survival rates were 85%, 68%, and 61% for non-extracorporeal life support group; 44%, 22%, and 22% for postcardiotomy shock group; and 45%, 27%, and 24% for non-postcardiotomy shock group, respectively. Furthermore, in both extracorporeal life support groups (postcardiotomy shock and non-postcardiotomy shock), there were a higher incidence (p < 0.05) of postoperative right heart failure (30% vs 66.7% vs 54.5%), acute renal failure requiring dialysis (20% vs 77.8% vs 54.5%), and respiratory failure (31.3% vs 88.9% vs 81.8%).ConclusionContinuous-flow left ventricular assist device implantation with prior extracorporeal life support appears to have a worse outcome regarding survival, right heart failure, renal and respiratory dysfunction (p < 0.05). Future studies have to be done to evaluate the outcome after extracorporeal life support bridge pre-left ventricular assist device, especially as ultima ratio in postcardiotomy shock patients.

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