Mechanical Circulatory Support in Circulatory Failure: The State of the Art

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last decade, temporary mechanical circulatory support (tMCS) has progressively become crucial to the management of critically ill patients presenting refractory circulatory failure.

Percutaneous devices are now widely employed as a bridge to recovery, long-term MCS, organ transplant or decision. The applications of temporary MCS are no longer restricted to patients presenting acute myocardial-infarction-associated cardiogenic shock (AMI-CS) or post-cardiotomy syndrome. Indeed, emerging applications have increased significantly in recent years, including, notably, septic cardiomyopathy, massive pulmonary embolism, obstetric catastrophes (embolic or cardiogenic), bridge to liver, lung and cardiac transplant and ECPR.

In addition to VA-ECMO, which is considered the gold-standard of extracorporeal life support in modern cardiac critical care, other devices (IMPELLA, the Protek-DUO and TandemHeart) are now available and increasingly employed.

While the evidence supporting MCS in numerous contexts remains scarce, several trials have recently been published on this topic. The aim of this Special Issue is to provide an update on the state of the art regarding the utilization and management of temporary MCS in refractory circulatory failure, beyond its usual applications in AMICS and post-cardiotomy-associated cardiogenic shock. We are seeking the submission of original research articles discussing the physiology and physiopathology of the application of tMCS, and articles that discuss fundamental and clinical research areas related to this topic.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Journal of Clinical Medicine.

Dr. Raphaël Giraud
Dr. Benjamin Assouline
Guest Editors

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