Incidence of temporary mechanical circulatory support before heart transplantation and impact on post-transplant outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Proposed changes to the United Network for Organ Sharing heart transplant allocation protocol will prioritize patients receiving temporary mechanical circulatory support (tMCS), including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), percutaneous ventricular assist devices (PVADs), and intra-aortic balloon pumps (IABPs). We sought to evaluate contemporary trends in the incidence and outcomes of patients who required tMCS during the hospitalization before heart transplantation.

METHODS: Using the National Inpatient Sample from 1998 to 2014, we identified 6,892 patients who received an orthotopic heart transplant and classified them by pre-transplant ECMO, PVAD, or IABP placement or no pre-transplant tMCS. We compared baseline characteristics and in-hospital outcomes between patients who underwent pre-transplant ECMO, PVAD, or IABP and patients who did not receive tMCS before heart transplantation.

RESULTS: Of patients who underwent heart transplantation, 456 (6.6%) received tMCS before transplant. During the study period, the use of tMCS more than doubled, from 17 cases per year from 1998 to 2002 to 40 cases per year from 2012 to 2014 (p < 0.001 for trend). Of patients with tMCS, 341 (74.8%) were supported by IABP, 130 (28.5%) were supported by ECMO, and 21 (4.6%) were supported by PVAD. Before 2007, patients who required tMCS had higher in-hospital mortality than patients who did not require tMCS before transplant (14.3% vs 7.5%, p = 0.05). In the subsequent era (2007 to 2014), mortality was not significantly different (4.7% vs 5.1%, p = 0.9). Hospital mortality improved over time for all patients but most significantly in patients who required tMCS (9.6% absolute risk reduction). However, patients who received tMCS had increased lengths of stays and rates of acute renal, hepatic, and respiratory failure, sepsis, bleeding complications, and surgical reoperations.

CONCLUSIONS: The use of tMCS before cardiac transplantation is increasing, with no difference in in-patient post-transplant mortality in the recent era between patients who did and did not receive tMCS but with increased complication rates among those who received tMCS. These data support the use of tMCS before cardiac transplantation in appropriately selected patients. Clinicians should balance the above outcomes when making decisions to implant tMCS, given the impending changes to the United Network for Organ Sharing heart allocation protocol.