Mechanical cardiovascular support in infants and children

Congenital heart disease. The national society journals present selected research that has driven recent advances in clinical cardiology

“…Fortunately, other options of support exist, and Stiller et al 24 provide a useful overview of mechanical cardiovascular support in infants and children.…”

The first successful use of the Levitronix PediMag ventricular support device as a biventricular bridge to transplant in an infant

“…The first case description of thoracoscopic esophagectomy aided by the da Vinci robotic system (Intuitive Surgical, Inc, Sunnyvale, Calif) was published in 2004 by Kernstine and colleagues. 1 We report here our singleinstitution experience of 32 robot-assisted esophagectomies with the da Vinci robot in which mobilization of the esophagus was done with the patient in the prone position.…”

“…Recent enthusiasm for mechanical ventricular assistance in this age group has disclosed significant challenges with respect to adequate anticoagulation and consequent thrombotic or bleeding complications during the course of device support. [1][2] We report here the first successful use of the Levitronix PediMag ventricular assist device (Levitronix, LLC Waltham, Mass) both as biventricular support as a bridge to transplant, and also for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) after transplant. This circuit is particularly attractive because of its small priming volume, ease of use, ready availability, and flexibility of application.…”

Antithrombotic therapy in pediatric ventricular assist devices: Multicenter survey of the European EXCOR Pediatric Investigator Group

“…The EXCOR ventricular assist device (EXCOR) is clinically used since 1990 for circulatory support of pediatric heart failure in almost 2000 patients as a bridge to transplant and bridge to recovery strategy. 1,2 The blood-contacting surfaces of EXCOR pumps are covalently coated with heparin (CARMEDA CBAS; Carmeda, Upplands Väsby, Sweden) to enhance hemocompatibility. However, similar to other ventricular assist device (VAD) antithrombotic therapy (AT) is necessary to reduce the risk of thromboembolic complications inherently induced by VAD-blood interactions.…”