David L.S. Morales

TL;DR: Over the long term, surviving children who required a long-term VAD as a BTT experience a similar QOL as those who went straight to transplantation.

TL;DR: The recovery program described herein is an independent pediatric ventricular assist device program with an intracorporeal continuous-flow device employed as an out-of-hospital bridge to recovery for a child with end-stage chronic heart failure.

TL;DR: Review of the literature describing ccTGA patients receiving VAD therapy shows promising results and mechanical circulatory support is becoming a desirable option for this population of patients and has the potential to provide significant long-term support, relieving them of heart failure symptoms and delaying and perhaps avoiding, the need for cardiac transplantation.

TL;DR: Short- and mid-term post-transplant survival using the EXCOR Pediatric VAD as a bridge to cardiac transplantation (BTT) in children is equivalent to patients who underwent OHT without pretransplant MCS.

TL;DR: Despite excellent surgical technique, uneventful weaning from CPB, and adequate initial function, orthotopic cardiac xenografts slowly fail within 24-48 hours without evidence of rejection; modification of preservation techniques and minimizing donor organ ischemic time may be able to ameliorate PCXD.