Revista española de cardiología (English ed.)
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Rev Esp Cardiol (Engl Ed) · Sep 2017
Observational StudyExperience With a Long-term Pulsatile Ventricular Assist Device as a Bridge to Heart Transplant in Adults.
Most long-term ventricular assist devices (VADs) that are currently implanted are intracorporeal continuous-flow devices. Their main limitations include their high cost and inability to provide biventricular support. The aim of this study was to describe the results of using paracorporeal pulsatile-flow VADs as a bridge to transplant (BTT) in adult patients. ⋯ Eighty percent of patients with the EXCOR VAD as BTT achieved the goal after an average of almost 4 months of support. The most frequent complications were infectious, and the most severe were neurological. In our enivonment, the use of these pulsatile-flow VAD as BTT is a feasible strategy that obtains similar outcomes to those of intracorporeal continuous-flow devices.