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Updated: May 18, 2026

Use of Two Intracorporeal Ventricular Assist Devices As a Total Artificial Heart
Published on: May 11, 2018
HeartMate-II left ventricular assist device infections resulting from gastrointestinal-tract fistulas
Mehmet H Akay1, Igor Gregoric, William E Cohn
1Center for Cardiac Support, Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston, Texas, USA.
Background:
In patients with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), pump-related infection can cause adverse effects that may result in death.
Methods:
We describe three patients who had infections related to a fistula between the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and the LVAD pocket and who subsequently underwent successful heart transplantation without developing sepsis. In no case did the LVAD-related infection adversely affect the outcome of transplantation.
Conclusions:
For detecting the fistulas, full upper-GI endoscopy and colonoscopy were superior to other types of diagnostic imaging studies.
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