Anesthesia for Non-Cardiac Surgery for the LVAD Patient

Abstract

Heart failure is poorly tolerated and end stage heart failure (classified as New York Heart Association (NYHA) class IV) has a two-year survival with medical therapy that approaches 0%. Innovation in this sphere has yielded mechanical therapies, principally the left ventricular assist device (LVAD). In the last decade one-year survival rates of Left ventricular assist device patients have increased from 52–83%. As this therapy is more commonly used to treat advanced heart failure, coupled with the increase in patient survival after implantation, patients are increasingly encountered in the peri-operative arena requiring anesthesia for non-cardiac surgeries. The goal of this chapter is to provide the non-cardiac trained anesthesia provider a primer on what an LVAD is, how it functions, the physiological changes that occur with implantation, and considerations for administering anesthesia to patients with LVADs for non-cardiac surgery. Review of articles from 2018 to 2022 found from a search on PubMed and Google Scholar using the keywords: “Left Ventricular Assist Device”, “LVAD”, “anesthesia”, “non-cardiac surgery”, “Doppler blood pressure measurement”, “VAD coordinator”. Non-cardiac trained anesthesia providers can safely administer the anesthetics to LVAD patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery as long as appropriate considerations are taken.