Cor Vasa 2005, 46(12):484-490

Percutaneous left ventricular support (pVAD Tandem Heart™) in patients in cardiogenic shock: bridging to life-saving intervention-case reports of two patients.

Petr Neužil^1,*, Petr Kmoníček¹, Petr Niederle¹, Vivek Reddy², Lucie Šedivá¹, Miloš Táborský¹, Ondřej Aschermann¹, Roman Vopálka³, Viktor Pavlíček⁴, Lenka Pavlíčková¹, Jana Matoušková¹, Michal Paďour¹, Pavel Formánek¹, Dan Gross¹, Jan Petrů¹, Jan Škoda¹

¹ Kardiologické oddělení, Nemocnice Na Homolce, Praha, Česká republika

² Arrhythmia Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA

³ Oddělení zdravotnické techniky, Nemocnice Na Homolce, Praha, Česká republika

⁴ Cardiac Assist Inc., Pittsburgh, USA

We present two case reports of percutaneous left ventricular mechanical support (pVAD) in patients in acute cardiogenic shock. This percutaneously inserted system (Tandem Heart™) is intended for circulatory stabilization of patients in cardio-genic shock, who may live to have a definitive solution either by catheter-based intervention or by surgery. The system is based on the left atrium-femoral artery bypass. It makes use of a low-rate centrifugal continuous flow pump.
The newly introduced pVAD system has made it possible to perform a catheter-based intervention resulting in patient circulatory stabilization and one which could be withdrawn after a couple of days. In either case, the system worked flawlessly for more than two days.
The newly established method may help reduce the mortality of patients developing acute cardiogenic shock.

Keywords: Acute cardiogenic shock; Left ventricular mechanical support

Published: December 1, 2005  Show citation