title: Circulatory support exceeding five years with a continuous-flow left ventricular assist device for advanced heart failure patients.
abstract: Continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices (CF-LVAD) are now providing years of safe circulatory support with enhanced quality of life. We present four cases of patients with advanced heart failure who received support for greater than 5-years with the HeartMate II CF-LVAD. One patient continues with support at 7.5 years and has decided to not undergo cardiac transplantation. Another patient has also had LVAD support for 7.7 years, initially with a pulsatile flow LVAD, and then was switched to the HeartMate II, which has continued to support him for the last 6.6 years. Two other patients have undergone heart transplant after support times of 5.46 years and 5.75 years. Few complications occurred and the patients had very active lifestyles during support. Explant analysis revealed very low bearing wear and minimal pannus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery, Mechanical Cardiac Circulatory Support and Cardiac Transplantation Program, Hannover Medical School, OE 6210, Carl-Neuberg-Str, 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany. Schmitto.Jan@mh-hannover.de.
authors.forename: Jan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Schmitto
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery, Mechanical Cardiac Circulatory Support and Cardiac Transplantation Program, Hannover Medical School, OE 6210, Carl-Neuberg-Str, 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Jasmin S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Hanke
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery, Mechanical Cardiac Circulatory Support and Cardiac Transplantation Program, Hannover Medical School, OE 6210, Carl-Neuberg-Str, 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rojas
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery, Mechanical Cardiac Circulatory Support and Cardiac Transplantation Program, Hannover Medical School, OE 6210, Carl-Neuberg-Str, 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Avsar
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery, Mechanical Cardiac Circulatory Support and Cardiac Transplantation Program, Hannover Medical School, OE 6210, Carl-Neuberg-Str, 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Malehsa
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery, Mechanical Cardiac Circulatory Support and Cardiac Transplantation Program, Hannover Medical School, OE 6210, Carl-Neuberg-Str, 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bara
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery, Mechanical Cardiac Circulatory Support and Cardiac Transplantation Program, Hannover Medical School, OE 6210, Carl-Neuberg-Str, 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Strueber
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery, Mechanical Cardiac Circulatory Support and Cardiac Transplantation Program, Hannover Medical School, OE 6210, Carl-Neuberg-Str, 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haverich
mesh_terms: D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000628:therapy*; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult