[Our Challenge of Implantable Left Ventricular Assist Device in Private Local Hospital]

Our hospital is a 350-bed private institution located in Kasugai City, Aichi Prefecture. In 1998, we established a cardiovascular surgery department, and in 2006, we began performing surgeries to implant extracorporeal left ventricular assist devices( LVAD). In 2007, we urgently installed an extracorporeal LVAD (left atrial drainage and aortic blood return) for a patient experiencing acute heart failure exacerbation following mitral valve replacement (MVR) due to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Under LVAD support, the patient was able to achieve mobility and oral intake. Based on this achievement, our hospital was certified as a facility authorized to perform implantable LVAD procedures in 2012. In June 2013, we performed the first implantable LVAD surgery in the Tokai region for a patient with ischemic cardiomyopathy following redo coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and extracorporeal LVAD implantation. To date, we have conducted a total of four implantable LVAD surgeries. None of these cases involved complications such as surgical site infections. One of the patients successfully lived a normal life for five years before undergoing heart transplantation at another hospital.