In-hospital Outcomes of Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVAD) Patients Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery

An increasing number of stage D heart failure patients are supported with left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), and the management of LVAD patients who require noncardiac surgery (NCS) presents unique challenges. Using the 2010-2014 National Inpatient Sample, we identified all adult cases of LVAD patients undergoing noncardiac surgeries using ICD-9-CM codes. We estimated inpatient mortality, bleeding complications, stroke, length of stay (LOS), and cost of hospitalization of the admissions related to NCS using mixed effects logistic and linear mixed regressions, respectively. A total of 30,323 patients with LVADs underwent 3,216 noncardiac surgeries (73.5% urgent) during the study period. LVAD recipients undergoing NCS had higher burden of certain comorbidities such as history of end-stage renal disease, pulmonary circulation disorders, peripheral vascular disease, and obesity. The most frequent NCS were general surgery, which included breast, endocrine, skin/burn, noncardiac transplantation, and abdominal surgeries (47.9%). In-hospital mortality was 7.7% with the highest rates observed among cases of neurologic surgeries. Vascular surgeries had the highest rates of ischemic stroke and gastrointestinal bleeding. Patients who underwent NCS had higher LOS and cost of hospitalization compared with LVAD recipients admitted to reasons other than NCS. Although bleeding complication trends have decreased, ischemic stroke and in-hospital mortality rates have increased overall during the study period. Urgent or emergency surgery was an independent predictor of mortality (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.9-5). A significant burden of complications occurs after noncardiac surgeries in LVAD recipients.