Techniques Involved in a Ventricular-Assist Program Using a Centrifugal Pump in a Community-Based Practice

(J. Extra-Corpor. Technol. 20(2):72–77) Our community-based perfusion practice provides bypass and other cardiac-related services at six hospitals. While the incidence of ventricular dysfunction of sufficient severity to require ventricular assist (VA) is small (0.55%), it is necessary to provide this service for all of our surgeons at all six hospitals. We describe our VA program and present our experience with seven patients aided during a 22-month period. Four had left ventricular assist, two required bi-ventricular support, and one received right ventricular assist, all by means of Centrimed centrifugal pumps. Three of these patients have survived between 3 and 13.5 months. Three patients were not anticoagulated. Duration of support ranged from 6.5 to 96.5 hours; mean flows ranged from 3 to 6 L/min