Pediatric Bridge to Heart Transplantation: Application of the Berlin Heart, Medos and Thoratec Ventricular Assist Devices

The Thoratec VAD can be placed in small patients with large hearts that can accommodate the available cannulas. The Berlin Heart and the Medos VAD have a selection of ventricles with small stroke volumes. All 3 systems can be used successfully in the pediatric population as BTT with better survival than with ECMO.