Incremental cost-effectiveness of extracorporeal membranous oxygenation as a bridge to cardiac transplant or left ventricular assist device placement in patients with refractory cardiogenic shock.

Objective: Emerging literature has described using venoarterial extracorporeal membranous oxygenation (ECMO) as a bridge to transplant or left ventricular assist device (LVAD) placement. We sought to identify the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of ECMO used as a bridge to cardiac transplant or LVAD. Methods: Patients with refractory cardiogenic shock who received venoarterial ECMO and were bridged to either cardiac transplant (n = 7) or a HeartMate 3 LVAD (n = 6) placement were included. Markov modeling was used, comparing ECMO bridging with non-ECMO-bridged patients. Cohorts entered the model alive and at every 1-year cycle, were exposed to risk of death, and ran forward for 20 years after transplant or LVAD. Results: Patients bridged with ECMO to cardiac transplant were stratified as group 1 whereas those bridged with ECMO to LVAD were stratified as group 2. The average ECMO run was 3 days in group 1 versus 11 days in group 2. Among group 1 patients, the ICER was $246,629 but was paired with a longer life expectancy. The ICER of group 2 patients was -$107,088 and was not paired with a longer life expectancy. The average inpatient cost for group 1 was found to be $636,023 versus $769,471 for group 2 patients. The average inpatient costs for patients not bridged to ECMO who received cardiac transplant or LVAD was $538,928 and $325,242, respectively. Conclusions: Using ECMO to bridge to transplant or LVAD placement is not cost effective. However, patients bridged to transplant are paired with longer life expectancy in contrast to patients bridged to LVAD.

A rare case of sinus of valsalva-right atrial fistula secondary to an abscess perforation from underlying aortic valve endocarditis.

Sinus of Valsalva-right atrial fistulas are abnormal connections between the aorta and the right atrium, and present challenging surgical conditions. An extremely rare etiology of aorto-right atrial fistula is infective endocarditis. This case report presents a 21 year old Caucasian female patient who had native aortic valve Staphylococcus aureus endocarditis complicated by sinus of Valsalva abscess perforation associated with an acute heart block, an aorto-right atrial fistula, severe heart failure, and cardiogenic shock. She underwent emergent aortic valve replacement and complex sinus of Valsalva fistula pericardial patch reconstruction and repair. This case report further explores the advantages and disadvantages of different valves for different patient populations, and evaluates the patient's prosthesis mismatch and effective orifice area.