Treatment of Medically Intractable End-Stage Heart Failure

Heart failure is the final pathway for myriad diseases that affect the heart. Patients with refractory symptoms of heart failure despite ultimate medical therapy have very poor prognosis. In these patients, replacement of failing heart with permanent organ transplantation or ventricular assist device, which is temporarily or permanently implanted, is often life-saving and can improve long term prognosis. Cardiac transplantation is the established standard for the treatment of end-stage cardiac disease refractory to medical therapy. The clinical success of transplantation has been streadily improving with the refinement of recipient selection, better donor management, and better immunosuppressive agents. Recent substantial evolution of mechanical circulatory assist devices improved dramatically the outcome of not only patients in decompensated heart failure but also a large proportion of acute heart failure patients in cardiogenic shock. With this evolution, implantable sophisticated devices are being used as destination therapy as a substitute for transplantation and are expected to diminish the intrinsic shortage of donor compared to the epidemic of heart failure.

The efficacy and safety of angioseal(R) compared to conventional manual compression after transfemoral percutaneous coronary intervention / 대한내과학회지

BACKGROUND: Although the number and the quality of percutaneous coronary intervention have been recently increased dramatically, the vascular complication at puncture site is still the major cause of patients' morbidity. We evaluated the safety and efficacy of newly-developed collagen-based arterial closure device, angioseal(R) after transfemoral percuatenous coronary intervention. METHODS: This study was designed as a prospective single center non-randomized comparative study. A total 200 patients undergoing transfemoral percutaneous coronary intervention were enrolled between April 2002 and May 2003. They were divided into two groups; angioseal(R) group (group A, n=100) and manual compression group (group B, n=100). The baseline clinical and angiographic characteristics were reviewed. The time to sit up, the time to ambulation, the duration of hospital stay, major and minor vascular puncture site complications were monitored. The patients were followed-up for 1 week after the procedure by telephone. RESULTS: The baseline clinical characteristics, clinical diagnosis, cardiovascular risk factors, types of procedure, doses and numbers of anticoagulants were similar between two groups. The blood pressure and activated clotting time were also similar. The time to sit up (group A: 4.3 0.3 hours, group B: 13.7 0.8 hours, p=0.004) and the time to ambulation (group A: 6.8 0.5 hours, group B: 18.8 2.1 hours, p=0.013) were shorter in group A. No major vascular complications were noted. The incidence of hematoma and bleeding were not significantly different between two groups. The incidence of ecchymosis, however, was significantly lower in group A (group A: 12%, group B: 3%, p=0.001) The duration of hospital stay was similar between two groups. During 7 days of follow-up period, the incidence of hematoma was significantly lower in group A (p=0.004). Although the incidence of ecchymosis was not significantly different between two groups. CONCLUSION: The angioseal(R) may be associated with earlier ambulation and less patients' morbidity with low incidence of local complication rate compared to manual compression after transfemoral percutaneous coronary intervention.