Acceptance of a pump-driven infusion therapy with prostaglandin E1 as a bridge to heart transplantation

Ambulatory pump-driven intravenous infusions are a novel and - compared with hospitalization-cost-effective procedure to bridge refractory heart failure patients to cardiac transplantation. In the present study 13 patients received chronic infusions with prostaglandin E1 alone or in conjunction with catecholamines and the acceptance of this bridging therapy was investigated over a period of seven weeks. Prostaglandin E1 was uptitrated from 2.5 ng/kg/min to a maximum of 40 ng/kg/min, according to individual tolerance. 50% of the maximum tolerated dose of prostaglandin E1 was used for chronic infusion with a further dose reduction if side effects occurred. Altogether 8 patients who completed the therapy were analysed; of the remaining 5 three patients had a heart transplant, one patient died and one patient did not comply with the protocol. The drugs were administered by an automatic portable pump, which was connected to a subcutaneous tunneled catheter. During hospitalization patients and their relatives were instructed how to prepare drug solutions and to handle the infusion system. Patients' perceptions were investigated by visual analog scale questionnaires (rating scale zero to ten) before, and at weekly intervals during bridging therapy. Initial acceptance was documented as belief in therapy (9.4 +/- 1.2 SD), absence of fear of handling the pump (8.9 +/- 1.2 SD) and confidence of receiving help of close relatives (8.7 +/- 1.8 SD). During the observation period there were no statistically significant differences compared with this favorable starting position and no significant disruption of life style occurred. Pain in the joints-a prostaglandin E1-associated side effect-increased significantly (p < 0.05) at week 5, but returned to baseline levels during the following two weeks. At study end patients confirmed that they would repeat the experience (7.6 +/- 1.4 SD) and advise other patients to undergo this form of therapy (8.2 +/- 1.9 SD). Thus, this pilot study suggests that ambulatory pump-driven intravenous infusion therapy comprising prostaglandin E1 and catecholamines is acceptable to patients as a bridge to heart transplantation and that there should be no major difficulties regarding compliance.