Original Article

Left ventricular assist device (LVAD) therapy has extended the survival of patients with advanced heart failure as a bridge to transplantation1 or as destination therapy2 with improved quality of life. In the LVAD experience, postop-erative ventricular arrhythmias (VA) occur in ≤35 % of the patients within 30 days.3,4 Despite the long-held belief that recipients of LVADs are unaffected by VA, the crude mor-tality rate is as high as 52 % for patients with VA occurring within 1 week postoperatively.5 However, the benefit of implantable cardioverter–defibrillators (ICDs) in patients with LVADs remains controversial.6,7 Although they are associated with a mortality reduction in some studies, ICD therapies (eg, shocks) that occur in ≤30 % of patients are a common complaint.8 Catheter ablation offers an opportunity to reduce or eliminate these events and has been shown to be feasible in single center studies.9–11 However, the elec-trophysiological characteristics and outcomes associated with catheter ablation for VAs in patients with Heart Mate II (HM2) device (Thoratec) have not yet been evaluated in a multicenter series