ASAIO journal : a peer-reviewed journal of the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs
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The HeartWare Ventricular Assist System (HVAD) provides significant improvements in survival and quality of life, and here, we seek to evaluate temporal differences in the adverse event (AE) rates. Patients (n = 382) in the ADVANCE bridge-to-transplant and continued access protocol trial were assessed for bleeding, cardiac arrhythmia, infection, ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, and right heart failure during predetermined time periods (≤30, >30-180, >180-365, >365-730, >730-1,095 days) after HVAD implant. The Kaplan-Meier survival at 30 days, 6 months, 1, 2, and 3 years was 98%, 90%, 84%, 71%, and 63%, respectively. ⋯ Incidence of cardiac arrhythmias, infections, strokes, and right heart failure were highest immediately post implant and lower rates occurred after 6 months. After 1 year, all AEs exhibited stable rates that were comparable up to 3 years of support (all p > 0.05). This changing risk over time has clinically meaningful implications toward improving patient management.
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Although the optimal ventilation strategy is unknown for patients placed on extracorporeal support, there are increasing reports of extubation being used. Our objective was to describe the change in ventilation strategies and use of tracheostomy and bronchoscopy practices among extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) centers across the world. A descriptive, cross-sectional 22 item survey of neonatal, pediatric, and adult ECMO centers was used to evaluate ventilator strategies, extubation, bronchoscopy, and tracheostomy practices. ⋯ Our study shows that ECMO centers are extubating their patients, performing tracheostomies and bronchoscopies on their patients more than in the previous years. There remains significant variation in ECMO ventilator strategies and management internationally. Future studies are needed to correlate these changes in practices to outcome benefits.
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Neurologic complications can occur with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) due to several factors. Prior studies identified neonates as having unique risk factors and neuroimaging findings post ECMO. The aim of this study is to describe brain magnetic resonance imaging findings of pediatric patients treated with ECMO. ⋯ There were 13 patients (27.7%) with an overall incidence of stroke: 8 patients had exclusive ischemic strokes, 2 had hemorrhagic strokes, and 3 had mixed types of stroke. The number of strokes in patients on veno-arterial ECMO was significantly decreased in patients undergoing transthoracic cannulation when compared with peripheral cannulation (7 vs. 42%, p = 0.05). Further study will be used to identify risk factors for neurological injury after ECMO and to look for outcome predictors based on neuroradiologic findings.