Accelerated LVAD pump thrombosis in COVID-19 patient: Case report and mini review

BACKGROUND

Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection exposes patients with heart failure specially who are on mechanical support to a higher risk of morbidity and mortality.

AIMS

To investigate the impact of COVID-19 infection on left ventricular assist device (LVAD) thrombosis in heart failure patients.

MATERIALS & METHODS

We searched the medical electronic records, Medline, PubMed and Cochrane databases for; (LVAD) AND (thrombosis)) AND (covid-19)) AND (heart failure). We divided cases reported into, LVAD thrombosis with COVID-19 infection and compare them with LVAD thrombosis without COVID-19 infection. Demographic data, LVAD device, presentation, treatment and outcomes were reviewed in all the LVAD thrombosis patients.

RESULTS

In addition to our case, 8 other cases of LVAD thrombosis associated with COVID and 9 cases of LVAD thrombosis without covid infection were found. Patients with Covid infection had worse presentation and outcomes (3 deaths VS. 1 death in non-covid group).

DISCUSSION

In LVAD patients, pump malfunction due to thrombus development in the inflow cannula, device body, or outflow graft can result in hemodynamic instability, hemolysis and other life-threatening complications. COVID infection significantly increases the risk of mortality in LVAD patient by accelerating the pump thrombosis due to elevated levels of endothelial protein C receptor and thrombomodulin along with procoagulants such as factor VIII, P-selectin, and von Willebrand factor.

CONCLUSION

Significant morbidity and mortality are attributed to LVAD thrombosis, which are exasperated by prothrombotic conditions created in COVID-19 infections.

Normothermic Regional Perfusion is an Emerging Cost-Effective Alternative in Donation After Circulatory Death (DCD) in Heart Transplantation

In donation after circulatory death (DCD) organ transplantation, normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) restores oxygenated blood flow following cardiac arrest and reverses warm ischemia. Recently, NRP has also been used to help recover DCD hearts in addition to the abdominal organs. While DCD donation has increased the number of abdominal organs and lungs pool, it has not been able to increase the number of heart transplants, despite the fact that it has the potential to increase the number of heart transplants by 15-30%. Thoracoabdominal normothermic regional perfusion makes heart transplantation feasible and permits assessing heart function before an organ procurement without affecting the preservation of abdominal organs. NRP can be used in two ways for DCD donor heart transplants: normothermic regional perfusion followed by machine perfusion (NRP-MP) and normothermic regional perfusion followed by static cold storage (NRP-SCS). Normothermic regional perfusion is an emerging technology, a cost-effective alternative in donation after circulatory death (DCD), and will increase the pool of donors in heart transplantation.

Is the Organ Care System (OCS) Still the First Choice With Emerging New Strategies for Donation After Circulatory Death (DCD) in Heart Transplant?

The scarcity of donor hearts continues to be a challenge in transplants for advanced heart failure patients. With an increasing number of patients on the waiting list for a heart transplant, the discrepancy in the number between donors and recipients is gradually increasing and poses a new challenge that plagues the healthcare systems when it comes to the heart. Several technologies have been developed to expand the donor pool in recent years. One such method is the organ care system (OCS). The standard method of organ preservation is the static cold storage (SCS) method which allows up to four hours of safe preservation of the heart. However, beyond four hours of cold ischemia, the incidence of primary graft dysfunction increases significantly. OCS keeps the heart perfused close to the physiological state beyond the four hours with superior results, which allows us to travel further and longer distances, leading to expansion in the donor pool. In this review, we discuss the OCS system, its advantages, and shortcomings.

Evolution of Xenotransplantation as an Alternative to Shortage of Donors in Heart Transplantation

This review aims to show and illustrate the history, current, ethical considerations, and limitations concerning xenotransplantation. Due to the current shortage of available donor organs for transplantation, many alternative sources are being examined to solve the donor shortage. One of them is xenotransplantation which refers to the transplantation of organs from one species to another. Compared to other nonhuman primates (NHP), pigs are ideal species for organ harvesting as they rapidly grow to human size in a handful of months. There is much advancement in the genetic engineering of pigs, which have hearts structurally and functionally similar to the human heart. The role of genetic engineering is to overcome the immune barriers in xenotransplantation and can be used in hyperacute rejection and T cell-mediated rejection. It is technically difficult to use large animal models for orthotopic, life-sustaining heart transplantation. Despite the fact that some religious traditions, such as Jewish and Muslim, prohibit the ingestion of pork products, few religious leaders consider that donating porcine organs is ethical because it saves human life. Although recent technologies have lowered the risk of a xenograft producing a novel virus that causes an epidemic, the risk still exists. It has major implications for the informed consent procedure connected with clinical research on heart xenotransplantation.