Effects of Systemic and Device-Related Complications in Patients Bridged to Transplantation With Left Ventricular Assist Devices

Complications of left ventricular assist devices causing high urgency status on waiting list: impact on outcome after heart transplantation

“…In line with previous literature, device infection (HU1) was the most common LVAD complication at the time of HTx 3,4 . About 80% of the transplanted LVAD patients suffered preoperatively from ‘HU’ status justifying LVAD complications, which is a much higher incidence when compared with data previously reported 3,4,7,12 . This might be caused by the relatively long LVAD support duration in our cohort, with a minimum mean support of 1.3 years (subgroup with arrhythmia) and a maximum mean support of 2.5 years (subgroup with device malfunction) 7,8 .…”

“…3,4 About 80% of the transplanted LVAD patients suffered preoperatively from 'HU' status justifying LVAD complications, which is a much higher incidence when compared with data previously reported. 3,4,7,12 This might be caused by the relatively long LVAD support duration in our cohort, with a minimum mean support of 1.3 years (subgroup with arrhythmia) and a maximum mean support of 2.5 years (subgroup with device malfunction). 7,8 Most likely, the dramatic donor organ shortage in Germany is the reason for both the prolonged LVAD support durations and, thereby, the cumulative increase in LVAD complication incidence in transplanted LVAD patients.…”

“…This discrepancy to the global registry data may be caused by a higher prevalence of patients with severe LVAD complications due to longer pre‐HTx support time in the Eurotransplant region 3–5,7–9 . Patients with severe complications are more compromised while undergoing HTx, which increases the risk of perioperative morbidity and mortality 7,10–12 …”

“…[3][4][5][7][8][9] Patients with severe complications are more compromised while undergoing HTx, which increases the risk of perioperative morbidity and mortality. 7,[10][11][12] This study aims to investigate the impact of the distinct LVAD complication categories accepted by the Eurotransplant audit committee for HU status on the outcome after HTx. We analysed perioperative morbidity and mortality, as well as survival.…”

Immobilization-induced symptomatic hypercalcemia treated with zoledronate in a child with a left ventricular assist device

“…Children with advanced he art failure have risk for immobilization even after left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation and can result in a prolonged hospital stay and debilitating complications such as respiratory muscle weakness and neurologic sequelae [ 5 , 6 ]. The use of LVAD as a bridge for heart transplantation in the pediatric population has increased rapidly [ 7 ]. We present here an adolescent girl implanted with a HeartMate 3 (HM3; Abbott Corporation, Abbott Park, IL, USA) LVAD who developed symptomatic immobilization-induced hypercalcemia that was successfully treated with fluid and bisphosphonate (zoledronate).…”