Mechanical circulatory support: The Bad Oeynhausen experience

Differential indication for mechanical circulatory support following heart transplantation

“…The mean age of these patients was 54 years. This data is comparable with the incidence of MCS in conjunction with postcardiotomy cardiac failure [2,6,7], namely 0.7 %. The mean age of these patients is also 54 years [2,6].…”

“…This data is comparable with the incidence of MCS in conjunction with postcardiotomy cardiac failure [2,6,7], namely 0.7 %. The mean age of these patients is also 54 years [2,6]. This data refers to 3,000 operations with heart lung machines per year [2,3,4].…”

“…Others report the treatment of PGF with LVAD [9,18] or with BVAD [16,17,19,20]. On the basis of an evaluation of more than 200 cases with MCS in our hospital [2,4,5,6,7] the advantages and disadvantages of the individual systems could be proven. The indications for the individual pumps were deduced from these data.…”

“…An unfavourable factor is the higher incidence of severe neurological complications associated with the Biomedicus centrifugal pump and the Abiomed system [6,13]. Another important aspect is the higher survival rates associated with Thoratec compared to Abiomed in bridge-to-transplant patients [6,13]. For this reason, the Biomedicus centrifugal pump and the Abiomed device were only applied for short-term support.…”

“…Three patients had haemorrhaging (27 % of the patient group), and two patients had neurological complications (13 %). The low numbers of haemorrhaging and neurological complications compared to bridging patients [2,6,7] can be explained by the growing experience and the relatively brief use of the systems.…”