title: Post-heart transplantation outcome of HeartMate II-bridged recipients requiring unplanned concomitant temporary right ventricular mechanical support.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Second-generation axial-flow left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) have become an established therapy in bridging end-stage heart failure patients to cardiac transplantation. Despite the proven clinical success of these devices, some patients develop right ventricular (RV) failure after LVAD implantation. We sought to determine post-heart transplantation outcomes of HeartMate II (HMII)-bridged patients who developed postimplantation right ventricular failure and received Levitronix CentriMag for RV support in addition to LVAD.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a single-centre institutional report of 64 patients transplanted during 2007-2013 from a HeartMate II device. Patients were divided into two groups according to whether they received an isolated LVAD (n = 56) or required additional RV mechanical support (n = 8). These two groups were compared for early graft loss (death before discharge or retransplantation), major early post-transplant complications and 3-year graft survival.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Early graft loss was 10.7% in isolated HMII and 25% in HMII + RVAD patients (P = 0.26). There were no observed differences in the rates of primary graft dysfunction (7.3 vs 0%, P = NS), renal failure (16.7 vs 12.5%, P = NS) and stroke (11.1 vs 25%, P = 0.273) between the two groups. Pulmonary artery resistance (odds ratio: 3.286, 95% confidence interval: 1.063-10.157, P = 0.039) was identified as a significant predictor for adverse outcome of mechanically-bridged heart transplant recipients. The 3-year graft survival rate was 86 ± 5% in isolated HMII and 75 ± 15% in HMII + RVAD patients, P = 0.326.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data demonstrate that heart transplant recipients who required unplanned RV mechanical support after LVAD implantation achieved comparable rates of early graft loss, post-transplant renal failure and stroke rate in comparison with patients bridged with an isolated HeartMate II assist device. Three-year graft survival was equivalent between those two groups. Given the small sample size, further studies involving more patients are needed to support or challenge our conclusions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic maub@ikem.cz.
authors.forename: Marian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Urban
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pirk
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Ondrej
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Szarszoi
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Josef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Besik
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Netuka
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018153:Czech Republic / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006085:Graft Survival; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D006352:Heart Ventricles; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate / Q000639:trends; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Circulatory support devices; Heart; Heart failure; Transplantation