Impact of Left Ventricular Assist Device Bridging on Posttransplant Outcomes

Patients bridged to transplant with a LVAD represent a subset of UNOS status 1 patients who deteriorated on intravenous inotropic therapy. Bridging to heart transplantation with an implantable LVAD provides comparable outcomes to similar status 1 patients who were stabilized on inotropic infusions only. In contrast with International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation data, no increase in posttransplant morbidity or mortality occurred in LVAD-bridged patients.