Extracorporeal membrane oxygenator assistance as "bridge" to combined heart and liver transplantation.
Heart transplantation is accepted worldwide as the treatment of choice for patients with end-stage heart disease who have a life expectancy of less than 1 year. Mechanical Cardiac assistance might be necessary as a bridge to transplantation and, in selected cases, to multiorgan transplantation. We report a successful case of a 15-day extracorporeal membrane oxygenator assistance as bridge to combined heart and liver transplantation in a young man with dilated cardiomyopathy and chronic hepatitis C virus infection.
Dell'Amore
A
A
Department of Cardiac Surgery, S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Bologna, Italy.
Botta
L
L
Gallieri
S
S
Arpesella
G
G
D000328:Adult; D002311:Cardiomyopathy, Dilated / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy; D015199:Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D008297:Male; D018754:Ventricular Dysfunction / Q000503:physiopathology