Continuous-Flow Circulatory Support

Simulation of Dilated Heart Failure with Continuous Flow Circulatory Support

Lumped parameter models have been employed for decades to simulate important hemodynamic couplings between a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) and the native circulation. However, these studies seldom consider the pathological descending limb of the Frank-Starling response of the overloaded ventricle. This study introduces a dilated heart failure model featuring a unimodal end systolic pres...

Complications of Continuous-Flow Mechanical Circulatory Support Devices

Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), more importantly the continuous-flow subclass, have revolutionized the medical field by improving New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class status, quality of life, and survival rates in patients with advanced systolic heart failure. From the first pulsatile device to modern day continuous-flow devices, LVADs have continued to improve, but they ...

Circulatory support for long-term treatment of heart failure: experience with an intraventricular continuous flow pump.

BACKGROUND A lifetime mechanical solution for advanced heart failure must be reliable, with a low risk of life-threatening complications. After extensive laboratory testing, we began clinical trials with an axial flow pump for long-term treatment of New York Heart Association class IV, transplant-ineligible patients. METHODS AND RESULTS The Jarvik 2000 is a continuous flow device that is impl...

Advances in Mechanical Circulatory Support Bleeding and Thrombosis in Patients With Continuous-Flow Ventricular Assist Devices

Because of the obligate intravascular location of contemporary continuous-flow ventricular assist devices (CFVADs), it is not surprising that bleeding and thrombosis are among the most common and feared complications of this therapy, respectively. Although strides have been made in our understanding of the pathophysiology of continuous flow, intravascular CF-VADs have been widely used only in t...

Continuous-Flow Circulatory Support: The Achilles Heel of Current-Generation Left Ventricular Assist Devices?