title: The actual role of cardiocirculatory assistance in heart-failure treatment as destination therapy and bridge to life.
abstract: Patients with end-stage heart failure have poor quality of life and a poor prognosis, and are usually burdened by symptoms at rest, need for frequent hospital admissions, complex pharmacologic therapies, and 1-year mortality rate of about 50%. Therapeutic options are scarce and not amenable to all. Only few patients can be transplanted. In recent years, technological progress has made available mechanical devices capable of providing short/medium- and long-term circulatory assistance. Clinical evidence of long-term survival without device-related adverse events using latest-generation small axial pumps allows evaluation of its use in patients with contraindications or inaccessibility to transplantation.
authors.affiliation: Cardiac Surgery, Department of Medical-Surgical Critical Care, University of Firenze, Largo Brambilla, 3, Florence 50134, Italy; University Cardiac Surgery, Largo Brambilla, 3, Florence 50134, Italy. Electronic address: mbonacchi@unifi.it.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bonacchi
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Harmelin
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sani
mesh_terms: D006333:Heart Failure / Q000601:surgery*; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D011788:Quality of Life; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Bridge to life; Bridge to recovery; Bridge to transplantation; Destination therapy; End-stage heart failure; Heart transplantation; Ventricular assist devices