Sistemi di assistenza meccanica al circolo. Esperienza dell'Università di Padova

The growing number of patients affected by end-stage heart failure has led to an enormous increase of interest in developing new ventricular assist devices (VAD). Nowadays, heart surgeons have various therapeutical options for their patients’ health, always taking into account their increasing requests for a good quality of life. This paper offers a complete review of all existing VADs and of those ones under development, starting from device classification and surgical techniques description. Aim of this paper is to analyze the experience of the Department of Crdiac Surgery of the Universtity of Padua in VAD application since 1993.