Successful Left Ventricular Assist Device Implantation for a Patient with Advanced Heart Failure Due to Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Abstract

A 40-year-old male visited our hospital with the chief complaint of exertional dyspnea, and was admitted due to severe left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. Although he received optimal medical therapy, including inotropic infusions, his signs and symptoms worsened during the hospital course, due to low-cardiac output, and he ultimately required intra aortic ballon pumping. Upon further investigation, he was diagnosed as having idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and was approved as a candidate for heart transplant by the hospital committee. Consequently, implantation of a LV assist device (HeartMate II^®) was performed to bridge the time to transplant. Herein, we report this first case of the use of the Heart Mate II in Nihon University for a young patient with severe LV dysfunction due to DCM.