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Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Medical Specialties

University of Kentucky

The VAD Journal

2017

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. chest compressions

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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Right Ventricle Chest Compressions: Do We Need A New Paradigm For Lvad Patients Needing Resuscitation? A Case Report., Arvind Bhimaraj, Erik E. Suarez, Jerry D. Estep Aug 2017

Right Ventricle Chest Compressions: Do We Need A New Paradigm For Lvad Patients Needing Resuscitation? A Case Report., Arvind Bhimaraj, Erik E. Suarez, Jerry D. Estep

The VAD Journal

The use of chest compressions in patients with left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) have been viewed to cause a potential damage to the outflow graft and hence have been a topic of controversy. We report a case of a LVAD patient who needed chest compressions during resuscitation for severe right ventricular failure. With the presence of trans-esophageal echocardiogram we noticed that the chest compressions did not need to be full ACLS compressions but modified to gentle right ventricular (RV) compressions in order to move blood into a normally functioning LVAD. We report this as a call for the LVAD medical …