Clinical outcomes of inpatient cardiac rehabilitation for patients with treated left ventricular assist device in Korea: 1-year follow-up

In Korea, the first patient with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) for destination therapy had successful implantation of a continuous-flow model in 2012. We investigated the safety and efficacy of exercise ther-apy with LVAD implantation 15 Korean patients. We retrospectively re-viewed 15 patients (mean age, 67.4±11.6 years; 10 males, 5 female, left ventricular ejection fraction 23.6%±7.1%), including 4 with implanted continuous-flow and 11 an axial-flow LVAD. The New York Heart Asso-ciation functional classification, ejection fraction, and quality of life were obtained. Survival rate, adverse events, admission rates, and en-rollment rates in cardiac rehabilitation were investigated. Survival at 6 and 12 months was 100% and 89%, respectively. The New York Heart Association functional classification improved from 3.4±0.5 to 2.3±0.05 at 12 months postoperatively (P<0.0001). The ejection fraction signifi-cantly increased from 23.6%±7.2% on the preoperative day to 35.4%±14.2% at 1 year (P<0.0018). The quality of life was also improved at 1 year (P<0.0001). The most common adverse events were bleeding (56%) and dyspnea (44%). The number of admissions was 3.2 per pa-tient-year. LVAD therapy is a safe and effective treatment option with exercise intervention for Korean patients waiting for heart transplanta-tion or those who were ineligible for heart transplantation. A larger study with longer follow-up is needed to determine details clinical out-comes after LVAD.