Adaptive Servo-Ventilation Therapy Reduces the Hospitalization Rate of Patients with Severe Heart Failure

Abstract Introduction Adaptive servo-ventilation (ASV) therapy is a recently developed non-pharmacological therapy that had been reported by many studies to be effective for restoring the cardiac function and improving the survival of patients with severe congestive heart failure (CHF). However, a recent large randomized study reported that ASV was not effective in terms of survival for the patients with reduced ejection fraction. However, it has not been studied whether ASV treatment reduces the rate of hospitalization when compared the admission rate between before and after introduction of ASV in each CHF patient. Thus, we tried to examine the frequency of hospital admissions of each patient before and after commencement of ASV therapy. Methods and Results The frequencies of hospitalization occurring during 12 months before and after ASV therapy (24 consecutive months) were retrospectively compared in 44 consecutive patients with severe CHF who could continue ASV therapy for at least 12 months. The admission frequency decreased from 1.9 ± 1.4 admissions over the 12 months before ASV to 1.1 ± 1.6 admissions over the 12 months after starting ASV ( P < 0.001), and the decrease tended to be greater in those patients with more frequent hospitalizations before ASV. Conclusion ASV therapy would be effective for reducing hospital admissions in patients with severe CHF under maximum medical treatment.