Regionalized approach to emergency medical services training for the care of patients with mechanical assist devices.

Advances in mechanical circulatory assist device technology have allowed dozens of patients with different types of devices to live in any community in the United States. Some of the newer devices pump blood continuously, resulting in patients without pulses. The mechanical circulatory assist device teams and emergency medical services providers in the mid-Atlantic region wondered how best to prepare the community to respond appropriately to emergencies in patients with these mechanical devices.

Right heart dysfunction after left ventricular assist device implantation: a comparison of the pulsatile HeartMate I and axial-flow HeartMate II devices.

Background: Right heart dysfunction confers significant morbidity and mortality after left ventricular assist device implantation and historically occurs in as many as a third of patients. It is unknown whether newer axial flow pumps have a different impact on postimplant right heart dysfunction. We compared the incidence of right heart dysfunction after implantation of the pulsatile HeartMate I (XVE) and the continuous flow HeartMate II left ventricular assist device.