Pediatric ventricular assist devices - First steps for babies

摘要

Patients with severe cardiac failure who are candidates for heart transplantation may require temporary mechanical cardiac support to survive until a donor heart becomes available. This clinical observation is true of children as well as adults. Although the numbers of children may be much smaller than the numbers of adults thus affected, the potential number of years of life saved for each person is much greater for children.Since the 1970s, the principal form of mechanical cardiac support for infants and children has been extracorporeal membrane oxygen-ation (ECMO). However, ECMO is designed for short-term support, and as waiting times for donor organs have grown progressively longer (especially for infants), the need for longer-term forms of support has become evident.