Central Extracorporeal Life Support With Left Ventricular Decompression to Berlin Heart Excor: A Reliable “Bridge to Bridge” Strategy in Crash and Burn Patients

The aim of this study was to compare patients with severe biventricular heart failure who underwent Berlin Heart Excor implantation with (cardiogenic shock [CS] status) or without the need for preoperative extracorporeal life support (ECLS) as a bridge to long‐term device. A total of 40 consecutive patients with severe biventricular heart failure underwent Berlin Heart Excor implantation with (CS status, n = 20, 50%) or without (control, n = 20, 50%) the need for preoperative ECLS as a bridge to long‐term device from March 2007 to May 2015 at our institution. Demographics and preoperative baseline characteristics as well as early and long‐term outcomes including mortality and complication rates were retrospectively compared between the two groups. There were no statistically significant differences in terms of demographics and most preoperative clinical characteristics. The mean age in the ECLS (CS group) and control group was 43.5 ± 19.4 and 41.3 ± 16.4 (P = 0.705), whereas 20 and 25% of patients were females (P = 1.000). However, patients from the ECLS group had preoperatively higher lactate (P = 0.037), aspartate aminotransferase (P