Ventricular Assist Devices: Clinical Advances in Practice and Future Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

The progress made in the field of mechanical circulatory support over the last two decades has been remarkable. For long-term ventricular assist devices, technology has progressed from pulsatile pneumatically driven devices to completely magnetically levitated devices, which are entirely intrapericardial. For short-term ventricular assist devices, technology is once again progressing from pulsatile pneumatically driven devices to completely magnetically elevated devices, as well as microaxial miniature intraventricular devices. Furthermore, new work is being carried out in the field of total artificial heart; the performance of new devices has steadily been improving within numerous trials, and they are now at the point where they can replace the previous generation of devices. The holy grail of left ventricular assist devices would be a completely implantable long-term device that is entirely charged without an external driveline. Entering into the realm of cardiac transplantation, various devices have been developed to mechanically support and perfuse the donor heart during transportation prior to transplantation, with remarkable successes made in recent years, especially in the field of donor circulatory death (DCD) and normothermic regional perfusion (NRP). In this Special Issue, we welcome authors to submit papers related to clinical practice in the abovementioned fields, in keeping with their areas of expertise.

Dr. Balakrishnan M. Mahesh
Guest Editor

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