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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Author home page(s): Gordan Samoukovic Renzo Cecere Permission Requests Google Scholar Articles by Samoukovic, G. Articles by Cecere, R. PubMed Articles by Samoukovic, G. Articles by Cecere, R. Related Collections Mechanical Circulatory Assistance Transplantation - heart

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Case Reports

Successful Treatment of Heart Failure due to Acute Transplant Rejection With the Impella LP 5.0

^a Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, McGill University Health, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
^b Division of Cardiology, McGill University Health, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Accepted for publication December 1, 2008.

^_* Address correspondence to Dr Cecere, 687 Pine Ave West, Rm S8.45, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 1A1, Canada (Email: renzo.cecere{at}muhc.mcgill.ca).

Cardiogenic shock resulting from transplant rejection is a serious complication with high mortality and morbidity. Often resistant to maximal medical therapy, this condition frequently requires mechanical circulatory support until recovery or retransplantation. We present a 52-year-old patient with multiorgan failure secondary to acute graft rejection after orthotopic heart transplantation. Maximal medical therapy was not successful, and the patient was bridged to recovery with an Impella LP 5.0 (Abiomed Inc, Danvers, MA) left ventricular assist device (LVAD). The relative merits of this therapeutic approach are outlined and discussed. The patient was discharged 3 weeks after LVAD removal and remains clinically stable.