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Biventricular failure with low pulmonary vascular resistance was managed by left ventricular assist device alone without right-sided mechanical support

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  • Artificial Heart (Clinical)
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Abstract

How to manage preoperative right ventricular dysfunction (RVD) in heart failure patients without cardiogenic shock remains as a matter to be debated because implantable biventricular assist device treatment has not been established thus far. We here presented a patient with significant RVD indicated by low RV stroke work index (0.3 g/m) and RV dilatation as well as low pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR, 0.8 Wood Unit), who was managed by the introduction of pimobendan and sildenafil after the implantation of DuraHeart and tricuspid annuloplasty without right VAD, although his New York Heart Association symptom remained class III. Preoperative low PVR may be a key for successful LVAD treatment alone without right VAD in patients with INTERMACS profile 3 suffering RVD.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Therapeutic Strategy for Heart Failure, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan

    Teruhiko Imamura & Koichiro Kinugawa

  2. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Daisuke Nitta & Masaru Hatano

  3. Department of Cardiac Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Osamu Kinoshita, Kan Nawata & Minoru Ono

Authors
  1. Teruhiko Imamura
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  2. Koichiro Kinugawa
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  3. Daisuke Nitta
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  4. Masaru Hatano
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  5. Osamu Kinoshita
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  6. Kan Nawata
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  7. Minoru Ono
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Teruhiko Imamura or Koichiro Kinugawa.

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Imamura, T., Kinugawa, K., Nitta, D. et al. Biventricular failure with low pulmonary vascular resistance was managed by left ventricular assist device alone without right-sided mechanical support. J Artif Organs 18, 272–275 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10047-015-0829-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10047-015-0829-x

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