LVAD please

[frogger222]

Can anyone please tell  me if an LVAD can be implanted WITHOUT opening the chest?  Can it just be implanted through a side incision?  I really would like to know.  I am mainly talking about the newer fully implantable models.  Also, is it possible that a person having an LVAD implanted would not have to be on the heart/lung machine or a ventilator during a surgery such as this that lasted 6 hours?  Thanks so much!

[kenkeith]

LVAD tube attached to your left ventricle  and the device is implanted in the abdomen. Blood goes into the device through a ntricle. Once blood from the heart empties into the device, an external control system triggers pumping. A pusher plate forces a flexible diaphragm upward. This pushes the blood through an outflow tube attached to the aorta (the main artery supplying the body with blood). Valves keep blood flowing in the right direction.

According to standard procedures the patient is transported to a cardiovascular operating room, prepped, and anesthetized according to standard procedures. A sternotomy with extended midline abdominal incision is then made and cardiopulmonary bypass instituted.

The above is 2006 information.

[maggiemag]

Good information.  The patient would be placed on a ventilator until the bypass was started and then after the patient was taken off bypass.   Anyone who would need a LVAD would be in serious condition already and would need very close monitoring of both cardiac and respiratory status.  But that's not to say that they might not come off the vent pretty quickly after the implant.  Cannot predict ahead of time.

[frogger222]

Thanks.  I had a friend who said she had an LVAD implanted at a very well known clinic, and that it was a clinical trial.  She said she didn't have to have her chest opened, nor did she have to be on a venilator or a heart/lung machine.  She was released to fly home 48 hours after the surgery.   She even called from her cell phone in ICU right after she awoke.  I just don't know what to think, though.  This is one of the new LVADs that is fully implantable.  I just wasn't sure it was possible to implant it without a sternotomy, and I didn't see how someone would be released 48 hours afterwards.  Thanks.  

[kenkeith]

I realized your objective in the question and information you were seeking, but I couldn't find anything new that meets the procedure as you describe.  I will do another search, and if I find anything I will post.

[frogger222]

Thanks!!!