title: Central Extracorporeal Life Support With Left Ventricular Decompression to Berlin Heart Excor: A Reliable "Bridge to Bridge" Strategy in Crash and Burn Patients.
abstract: The aim of this study was to compare patients with severe biventricular heart failure who underwent Berlin Heart Excor implantation with (cardiogenic shock [CS] status) or without the need for preoperative extracorporeal life support (ECLS) as a bridge to long-term device. A total of 40 consecutive patients with severe biventricular heart failure underwent Berlin Heart Excor implantation with (CS status, n = 20, 50%) or without (control, n = 20, 50%) the need for preoperative ECLS as a bridge to long-term device from March 2007 to May 2015 at our institution. Demographics and preoperative baseline characteristics as well as early and long-term outcomes including mortality and complication rates were retrospectively compared between the two groups. There were no statistically significant differences in terms of demographics and most preoperative clinical characteristics. The mean age in the ECLS (CS group) and control group was 43.5 ± 19.4 and 41.3 ± 16.4 (P = 0.705), whereas 20 and 25% of patients were females (P = 1.000). However, patients from the ECLS group had preoperatively higher lactate (P = 0.037), aspartate aminotransferase (P < 0.001), and alanine aminotransferase (P < 0.001) levels, all of them significantly decreased after surgery (P  = 0.004, P = 0.017, and P = 0.001, respectively) and did not show any statistical differences to the corresponding values from the control group (P = 0.597, P = 0.491, and P = 0.339, respectively). Postoperatively, patients from the control and ECLS groups had statistically similar incidences of liver failure (30 vs. 35%, P = 0.736), renal failure (45 vs. 70%, P = 0.110), need for reopening (35 vs. 60%, P = 0.113), major cerebrovascular events (35 vs. 30%, P = 0.736), sepsis (10 vs. 25%, P = 0.407), wound infection (20 vs. 30%, P = 0.716), abdominal ischemia requiring surgery (28.6 vs. 36.8%, P = 0.719), and acute respiratory distress syndrome (25 vs. 35.3%, P = 1.000). The proportion of patients who were bridged to transplantation was statistically similar between the ECLS and the control groups (40 vs. 52.6%, P = 0.429). Furthermore, there were no statistically significant differences in terms of early (Breslow [generalized Wilcoxon] P = 0.907) and long-term (log-rank [Mantel-Cox] P = 0.787) overall cumulative survival accounting for 30-day survival of 75 versus 75%, 6-month survival of 60 versus 55%, 1-year survival of 54 versus 40%, and 7-year survial of 47 versus 40% in the control and ECLS groups, respectively. ECLS in critical CS as a bridge to implantation of the Berlin Heart Excor ventricular assist device is safe and is associated with improvement in end-organ function leading to similar excellent early and long-term survival and incidences of major complications as in patients without the need for preoperative ECLS support.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Heart and Marfan Center, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weymann
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Heart and Marfan Center, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Mina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Farag
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Heart Center, University of Cologne, Cologne.
authors.forename: Anton
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sabashnikov
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Heart Center, University of Cologne, Cologne.
authors.forename: Javid
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fatullayev
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Heart Center, University of Cologne, Cologne.
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zeriouh
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Heart and Marfan Center, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Bastian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schmack
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Heart and Marfan Center, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Rawa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Arif
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Heart and Marfan Center, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Heart and Marfan Center, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alt
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Raake
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Transplantation & Mechanical Circulatory Support, Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, Harefield Hospital, Harefield, Middlesex, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Nikhil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Prakash Patil
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Transplantation & Mechanical Circulatory Support, Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, Harefield Hospital, Harefield, Middlesex, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Aron-Frederik
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Popov
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Transplantation & Mechanical Circulatory Support, Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, Harefield Hospital, Harefield, Middlesex, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Andre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rüdiger Simon
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Heart and Marfan Center, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karck
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Heart and Marfan Center, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Arjang
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ruhparwar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001604:Berlin; D015199:Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000209:etiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D016276:Ventricular Function
keywords: -Berlin Heart Excor; -Central Extracorporeal life support; -Left ventricular decompression; -Outcomes; Biventricular heart failure