[Left ventricular assistant devices for end-stage heart failure: report of two cases].
In the last 2 decades, there have been significant advances in medical treatment of heart failure. However, there is a group of patients who are refractory to the available medical therapy and progress inevitably to a state of end-stage heart failure, whose only therapeutic alternative is cardiac transplantation. But this is an option limited by the scarce availability of donors. Therefore many patients die waiting for an organ. Recently, extra or intracorporeal left ventricular devices have emerged as a viable alternative for patients with end-stage heart failure waiting for a heart transplant. These devices discharge the left ventricle, increasing cardiac output and improving systemic perfusion. This year, in our hospital we began a left ventricular device implantation program for the most severely ill patients on the waiting list for cardiac transplantation. We report two males aged 30 and 53 years, in whom a left ventricular device was successfully implanted, using a minimally invasive surgical technique developed at the University of Hannover in Germany.
Oneglio
O
Pedemonte
Andrés
A
Vera
Jan D
JD
Schmitto
Sebastián V
SV
Rojas
Axel
A
Haverich
Lorenzo
L
Merello
Manuel
M
Novajas
Fernando
F
Aranda
Julio
J
Ibarra
José A
JA
Muñoz
Javier
J
Alburquerque
Rienzi
R
Díaz
Ernesto
E
Aranguiz-Santander
D000328:Adult; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000601:surgery*; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008488:Medical Illustration; D008875:Middle Aged; D019919:Prosthesis Implantation / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome