Surgical decommissioning of durable left ventricular assist devices in six patients with cardiac recovery resulted in 0% mortality and successful discharge without mechanical circulatory support.
Observational (n=6)
No
Durable LVAD decommissioning is a safe and feasible minimally invasive alternative to complete explantation for patients who experience cardiac recovery, demonstrating excellent long-term survival.
Cardiac recovery following durable left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation is the ideal outcome for heart failure patients.Traditionally, the durable LVAD has required explantation.We describe our single-center experience with LVAD decommissioning.LVAD decommissioning involved making a sternotomy or sub-xiphoid incision, ligating the outflow graft, and removal of the driveline by transecting the driveline inside and outside of the chest.Six patients underwent durable LVAD decommissioning from 2017-2024.One patient had a HeartWare device, three patients had a HeartMate II, and two patients had a HeartMate 3.All patients were successfully decommissioned and discharged without mechanical circulatory support.
EL-Andari et al. (Fri,) conducted a observational in Heart failure with cardiac recovery post-LVAD (n=6). Durable LVAD decommissioning was evaluated on All-cause mortality at longest follow-up. Surgical decommissioning of durable left ventricular assist devices in six patients with cardiac recovery resulted in 0% mortality and successful discharge without mechanical circulatory support.