Abstract
Follow-Up Of Survivors Following Insertion Of The Ventricular Assist Device In Patients With Postcardiotomy Shock. For the past four years, we have used ventricular assist devices (VAD) in 10 patients who developed cardiogenic shock during or after cardiac operations. Ten patients consisted of 5 males and 5 females, and their ages ranged from 22 to 64 years old (average 51). Eight of these patients had valvular heart diseases and two had ischemic heart diseases. The duration of VAD support ranged from 6 hours to 9 days (mean 4.8 days). Nine patients were weand from the VAD, and 5 were discharged from the hospital. The 5 survivors were followed up for 10 to 31 months (mean 19.2 months). Four were in NYHA functional class I and one in class II. Echocardiography revealed that LVDs, EF and mVcf recovered after 6 months following the operation. In 4 cases, mVcf increased more than those at pre-operation indicated by the exercise test.
