• Sebastian V Rojas, Murat Avsar, Jasmin S Hanke, Zain Khalpey, Simon Maltais, Axel Haverich, and Jan D Schmitto.
• Department of Cardiothoracic, Transplantation, and Vascular Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
• Artif Organs. 2015 Jun 1; 39 (6): 473-9.

AbstractThe use of mechanical circulatory support to treat patients with congestive heart failure has grown enormously, recently surpassing the number of annual heart transplants worldwide. The current generation of left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), as compared with older devices, is characterized by improved technologies and reduced size. The result is that minimally invasive surgery is now possible for the implantation, explantation, and exchange of LVADs. Minimally invasive procedures improve surgical outcome; for example, they lower the rates of operative complications (such as bleeding or wound infection). The miniaturization of LVADs will continue, so that minimally invasive techniques will be used for most implantations in the future. In this article, we summarize and describe minimally invasive state-of-the-art implantation techniques, with a focus on the most common LVAD systems in adults. Copyright © 2015 International Center for Artificial Organs and Transplantation and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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