Long Term Survival after Heart Transplantation is Not Affected by Axillary Intra Aortic Balloon Pump Support as a Bridge to Heart Transplantation

Purpose Axillary intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) has been utilized in selected patients for circulatory support as a bridge to heart transplantation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if preoperative axillary IABP support has an impact on early and long-term survival in patients undergoing heart transplantation. Methods Between January 2010 and August 2019, 307 consecutive patients underwent heart transplantation in our institution. We divided the cohort into two groups: 144 patients who underwent axillary IABP insertion as a bridge to transplantation (Group A) and 163 patients without an axillary IABP (Group B). The primary outcomes of interest include 30-day mortality and long-term survival. We also investigated if preoperative axillary IABP support was an independent predictor of long-term survival by Cox proportional hazards analysis. Results There were no significant difference in patient characteristics including age, sex and preoperative creatinine. The number of patients who had history of previous cardiac surgery in Group B (115/163, 70.6%) was significantly larger than in Group A (42/144, 29.2%) (p Conclusion Axillary IABP circulatory support as a bridge to heart transplantation would be a reasonable strategy to optimize heart transplant candidates, leading to comparable 30-day mortality and long-term survival to those who without IABP support. Axillary IABP was not an independent predictor of long-term survival.