The left ventricular assist device (LVAD). A bridge to heart transplantation.

Since its approval by the USFDA in 1998, the LVAD has been used primarily as a bridge to transplantation. It has been effective in improving the overall health and debilitated states in patients with cardiomyopathies and CHF by restoring them to a near normal hemodynamic state and improving end-organ blood flow. Recent studies indicate that the LVAD might be useful as a destination therapy, making transplantation unnecessary, providing one solution to the imbalance of heart donor supply to transplant candidate need.