BACKGROUND Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are increasingly being used to "bridge" patients to heart transplantation. METHODS Data from 40 consecutive status 1 heart transplantation patients treated with intravenous inotrope therapy (n = 20) or the HeartMate LVAD (n = 20) were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS Baseline clinical characteristics were similar in the two groups. At the ...

Heart transplantation has evolved as the "gold standard" therapy, with median survival exceeding 10 years, for patients with endstage heart failure (HF). Advancements in the fields of immunosuppression, infection prophylaxis, and surgical techniques have transformed heart transplantation from what was once considered an experimental intervention into a routine treatment. The number of heart tra...

UNLABELLED Patients with end-stage heart failure have poor quality of life and prognosis. Therapeutic options are scarce and are not available for all. Only few patients can be transplanted every year. Several medical and surgical strategies have shown limited ability to influence prognosis and quality of life. In the past years, technological progress has realized devices capable of providing ...

Continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices (CF-LVADs) have significantly improved outcomes for patients with end-stage heart failure when used as a bridge to cardiac transplantation or, more recently, as destination therapy. However, its implantations carries a risk of complications including infection, device malfunction, arrhythmias, right ventricular failure, thromboembolic disease, pos...

Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are increasingly used for the treatment of end-stage congestive heart failure, both as a bridge to transplantation and as destination therapy (1). The HeartWare HVAD (HeartWare Inc, Framingham, MA, USA) is a continuous centrifugal-flow left ventricular assist device with a magnetic levitating rotor pump. The pump weighs just 140 g and its small design all...

Today, heart transplantation is the golden standard for the treatment of patients with end-stage heart failure. A median survival time of more than 11 years (and 13 years for those surviving the first year) after transplantation will be hard to equal let alone to beat [1]. As a result of donor organ shortage, transplantation can, unfortunately, only be offered to a few patients. Supported by co...