Approach to Complications of Ventricular Assist Devices: A Clinical Review for the Emergency Provider.

BACKGROUND

Heart failure is a major public health problem in the United States. Increasingly, patients with advanced heart failure that fail medical therapy are being treated with implanted ventricular assist devices (VADs).

OBJECTIVE

This review provides an evidence-based summary of the current data for the evaluation and management of implanted VAD complications in an emergency department context.

DISCUSSION: With a prevalence of >5.8 million individuals and >550,000 new cases diagnosed each year, heart failure is a major public health problem in the United States. Increasingly, patients with advanced heart failure that fail medical therapy are being treated with implanted VADs. As the prevalence of patients with VADs continues to grow, they will sporadically present to the emergency department, regardless of whether the facility is a designated VAD center. As a result, all emergency physicians must be familiar with the basic principles of VAD function, as well as the diagnosis and initial management of VAD-related complications. In this review, we address these topics, with a focus on contemporary third-generation continuous flow VADs. This review will help supplement the critical care skills of emergency physicians in managing this complex patient population.

CONCLUSIONS

The cornerstone of managing the unstable VAD patient is rapid initiation of high-quality supportive care and recognition of device-related complications, as well as the identification and use of specialist VAD teams and other resources for support. Emergency physicians must understand VADs so that they may optimally manage these complex patients.