Abstract
Because of the extreme donor shortage in Japan, waiting times for heart transplantation exceed 2 years. Since 1980s in Japan, device availability has also been an issue, with only a few paracorporeal ventricular assist devices (VADs) available as a bridge to transplantation or recovery. However, two implantable VADs became commercially available in 2011. Given these constraints in our healthcare system, we report a relatively rare case of bridge-to-bridge use of an implanted EVAHEART after having used a paracorporeal AB-5000 support for an extended period of time. We successfully employed a combined left thoracotomy and median sternotomy approach as a conversion technique.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 193-196 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Journal of Artificial Organs |
Volume | 17 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2014 Jun |
Keywords
- AB-5000
- Bridge to bridge
- EVAHEART
- Ventricular assist device
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Medicine (miscellaneous)
- Biomaterials
- Biomedical Engineering
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine