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Risk of Left Ventricular Assist Device as a Bridge to Heart Transplant Following Postinfarction Ventricular Septal Rupture
Author(s) -
Kshettry Vibhu R.,
Salerno Christopher T.,
Bank Alan J.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of cardiac surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.428
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1540-8191
pISSN - 0886-0440
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8191.1997.tb00101.x
Subject(s) - medicine , cardiology , ventricular assist device , heart failure , myocardial infarction , shunt (medical) , heart transplantation , transplantation , bridge to transplantation , destination therapy , infarction , surgery
A bstract Heart transplantation is an effective treatment for end‐stage heart failure. However, due to the persistent shortage of donor hearts, many patients die awaiting a transplant. Implantable left ventricular assist devices are now available as a reliable bridge to cardiac transplantation. This report presents a patient with terminal heart failure as a result of a postmyocardial infarction ventricular septal rupture (VSR), who underwent a successful placement of the HeartMate left ventricular assist device (LVAD) and velour patch closure of an apical VSR. Despite this therapy, the patient expired after developing a second VSR, which created a high‐flow right‐to‐left shunt and caused hypoxic irreversible brain injury. We suggest that use of a left ventricular assist device as a bridge to transplantation be approached with extreme caution in a patient with a postinfarction ventricular septal rupture.