Open AccessReduction of driveline infections through doubled driveline tunneling of left ventricular assist devices—5-year follow-up
Author(s) -
Leonhard Wert,
Jasmin S. Hanke,
Güneş Doğan,
Marcel Ricklefs,
Felix Fleißner,
Arijit Chatterjee,
C. Feldmann,
Axel Haverich,
Jan D. Schmitto
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of thoracic disease
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.682
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 2077-6624
pISSN - 2072-1439
DOI - 10.21037/jtd.2018.03.127
Subject(s) - medicine , ventricular assist device , surgery , cardiology , heart failure
Driveline infection (DLI) is one of the leading causes for unplanned re-admissions of patients undergoing therapy with left ventricular assist devices (LVAD). In previous studies our group was able to show that a double tunneling implantation technique could significantly reduce infection rates one year after implantation. We now report the results of the five-year-follow up of patients receiving the double tunneling technique.