Ann Rehabil Med.  2014 Jun;38(3):396-400. 10.5535/arm.2014.38.3.396.

Exercise Therapy for an Older Patient With Left Ventricular Assist Device

• Park WH
• Seo YG
• Sung JD

• KMID: 2165759
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5535/arm.2014.38.3.396

Abstract

A left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is a mechanical circulation support implanted for patients with end-stage heart failure. It may be used either as a bridge to cardiac transplantation or as a destination therapy. The health of a 75-year-old man with a medical history of systolic heart failure worsened. Therefore, he was recommended to have implanted a LVAD (Thoratec Corp.) as a destination therapy. After the surgery, he was enrolled in patient cardiac rehabilitation for the improvement of dyspnea and exercise capacity. In results, there is an improvement on his exercise capacity and quality of life. For the first time in Korea, we reported a benefit of exercise therapy after being implanted with a LVAD.

Keyword

Left ventricular assist device (LVAD); Exercise therapy; Destination therapy

MeSH Terms

Aged
Dyspnea
Exercise Therapy*
Heart Failure
Heart Failure, Systolic
Heart Transplantation
Heart-Assist Devices*
Humans
Korea
Quality of Life
Rehabilitation

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Components of the HeartMate II continuous-flow left ventricular assist device system, including pump, driveline, system controller, and batteries.

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  Fig. 2 The 6-minute walk test (6-MWT) results for the patient in this case (bars). There was improvement during left ventricular assist device (LAVD) support from postoperative 2 to 20 weeks.

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