Yang TW, Song S, Lee HW, Lee BJ. Cardiac rehabilitation in a heart failure patient after left ventricular assist device insertion and subsequent heart transplantation: A case report. World J Clin Cases 2022; 10(8): 2577-2583 [PMID: 35434054 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i8.2577]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Byeong-Ju Lee, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, 179, Gudeok-ro, Seo-gu, Pusan 602-739, South Korea. lbjinishs@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Rehabilitation
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Mar 16, 2022; 10(8): 2577-2583 Published online Mar 16, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i8.2577
Cardiac rehabilitation in a heart failure patient after left ventricular assist device insertion and subsequent heart transplantation: A case report
Tae Woong Yang, Seunghwan Song, Hye Won Lee, Byeong-Ju Lee
Tae Woong Yang, Byeong-Ju Lee, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Pusan 602-739, South Korea
Seunghwan Song, Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Pusan National University Hospital, Pusan 602-739, South Korea
Hye Won Lee, Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Pusan National University Hospital, Pusan 602-739, South Korea
Author contributions: Lee BJ, Song SH, and Lee HW contributed to subject assessment; Yang TW, Lee BJ, Song SH, and Lee HW contributed to drafting of the manuscript and data interpretation; Yang TW, Lee BJ, Song SH, and Lee HW contributed to study conception, design, and supervision; all authors issued final approval for the version to be submitted.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from the patient(s) to publish this paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Byeong-Ju Lee, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, 179, Gudeok-ro, Seo-gu, Pusan 602-739, South Korea. lbjinishs@gmail.com
Received: September 13, 2021 Peer-review started: September 13, 2021 First decision: November 11, 2021 Revised: November 16, 2021 Accepted: January 29, 2022 Article in press: January 29, 2022 Published online: March 16, 2022 Processing time: 178 Days and 15.1 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Insertion of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) and heart transplantation (HT) improve the survival of patients with heart failure. In addition, cardiac rehabilitation (CR) further increases the functional capacity. This case report describes a successful case of CR after LVAD insertion and subsequent HT.
CASE SUMMARY
In the present case, during the LVAD insertion period, peak oxygen consumption (VO2) increased by 12.16% after CR. HT was performed 7 mo after the LVAD insertion, and the patient participated in phases I and II CR. The peak VO2 increased from 17.24 to 22.29 mL/kg/min. This improvement was more significant than that reported in previous studies on CR after LVAD insertion or HT. The patient’s quality of life also improved. The total average score of the short form-36 questionnaire increased from 29.5 points at admission to 53.3 points 9 mo after HT.
CONCLUSION
A tailored CR program after LVAD insertion or HT may improve the patients’ quality of life and increase survival.
Core Tip: This case report describes a successful case of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) after left ventricular assist device (LVAD) insertion and subsequent heart transplantation (HT). Increase in the peak oxygen consumption was more significant than that reported in previous studies on CR after LVAD insertion or HT. A tailored exercise program for each phase led to improvement in the patient’s quality of life.
