Special Treatment and Wound Care of the Driveline Exit Site after Left Ventricular Assist Device Implantation.

Objective: Despite good results following implantation of left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), infections of the driveline and device pocket remain a major problem for patients on long-term support. We present the data from heart failure patients treated with a Thoratec HeartMate-II LVAD (Thoratec Corporation, Pleasanton, California, United States).

Methods: From January 2008 to April 2011, in our institution, 40 heart failure patients (NYHA IV) were supported with a HeartMate-II LVAD.

Morphometric ultrastructural analysis of muscle fibers and neuromuscular junction in rats kept under conditions of weightlessness for 21 days.

The aim of the study was qualitative and quantitative analysis of muscles and neuromuscular junctions of m. quadriceps, m. diaphragma and m.

[Improvement of head-pelvis axis (+Gz) tolerance by increasing body hydration].

Experiments were performed to determine tolerance to head-to-feet (+Gz) acceleration in 62 test subjects aged 23 to 33 years. They were rotated in a human centrifuge before and after they consumed water and water-salt supplements under the conditions of normal activity or dry immersion simulating microgravity effects. During the centrifugation experiments the following parameters were recorded: stroke volume and cardiac output, arterial pressure by means of Korotkov sounds, electrolytes, total protein and hematocrit.