Left ventricular assist device destination therapy versus extended criteria cardiac transplant.

Background: End-stage heart failure is a growing problem associated with a high mortality using conventional medical care. Although cardiac transplantation is an excellent treatment option, it is a limited resource and most patients are ineligible for cardiac transplantation using standard listing criteria. Increasingly, newer surgical options for these patients include the usage of marginal donor organs in an extended criteria-alternate list heart transplant program (EC-AL), or left ventricular assist devices as destination therapy (DT-LVAD).