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Updated: Jul 1, 2025

Insertion, Maintenance, and Removal of the Percutaneous Dual Lumen Cannula Right Ventricular Assist Device
Published on: July 20, 2022
Withdrawal of Left Ventricular Assist Device in Dementia: A Case Report
Nicholas E Morley1, Cristina M Ramirez-Urquiola2, Shunichi Nakagawa2
1Emergency Medicine/Internal Medicine PGY-2, SUNY Downstate Medical Center and Kings County Hospital Center, Brooklyn, New York, New York, USA.
Abstract:
Left ventricular assistance devices (LVADs) are one type of life support with the unique quality of allowing recipients to live outside the hospital. This case report explores the decision by a patient and their family to withdraw LVAD therapy in the setting of dementia and consultant team recommendations at odds with one another due to the patient's simultaneous alertness and lack of decisional capacity. It then discusses the guiding principles that led to the withdrawal of LVAD therapy and lessons drawn from the experience by the care team.
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