Echocardiography for Left Ventricular Assist Device Patients

Abstract

Heart transplantation is the only cure for patients with end-stage heart failure; the shortage of donors has led to a high mortality rate among these patients. A left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is a device to provide mechanical circulatory support for patients unresponsive to heart failure therapy. Echocardiography should be considered an indispensable tool in the evaluation of patients with an LVAD. In fact, as outlined in this review, it provides useful and readily available information that could be crucial for the patient's survival. In the preoperative assessment, it is important to detect through echocardiography conditions and parameters that could hint the development of a postoperative complication, in order to treat them before LVAD implant or to consider the patient ineligible to this advanced treatment.