Conversion from long-term AB-5000 to EVAHEART using a combined left thoracotomy and sternotomy approach.
Because of the extreme donor shortage in Japan, waiting times for heart transplantation exceed 2 years. Since 1980s in Japan, device availability has also been an issue, with only a few paracorporeal ventricular assist devices (VADs) available as a bridge to transplantation or recovery. However, two implantable VADs became commercially available in 2011. Given these constraints in our healthcare system, we report a relatively rare case of bridge-to-bridge use of an implanted EVAHEART after having used a paracorporeal AB-5000 support for an extended period of time. We successfully employed a combined left thoracotomy and median sternotomy approach as a conversion technique.
Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1Seiryo-cho, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-8574, Japan, akiyamam@med.tohoku.ac.jp.
Masatoshi
M
Akiyama
Naotaka
N
Motoyoshi
Shunsuke
S
Kawamoto
Satoshi
S
Saito
Kenji
K
Yamazaki
Yoshikatsu
Y
Saiki
D002311:Cardiomyopathy, Dilated / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019919:Prosthesis Implantation / Q000379:methods*; D056346:Sternotomy; D013908:Thoracotomy; D013997:Time Factors