Preoperative Right Heart Dysfunction and Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Patients with Left Ventricular Assist Devices
Max Liebo, Joshua Newman, Mingxi Yu, Zeeshan Hussain, Sarah Malik, Brian D. Lowes, Cara Joyce, Ronald Zolty, Haseeb Ilias Basha, Alain Heroux, Edwin C. McGee, John Um, Eugenia Raichlin
Abstract
Gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) is a common cause of morbidity among patients supported by left ventricular assist devices (LVADs). The aim of this study was to identify if pre-LVAD right ventricular (RV) dysfunction is associated with risk of GIB after LVAD implantation. Of 398 patients implanted with LVADs between July 2008 and July 2016, 130 (33%) developed GIB at a median of 2.6 months following LVAD implantation. Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) were found in 42 (34%) GIB patients. Patients with GIB were older and more likely to have hypertension, diabetes, and ischemic cardiomyopathy. On pre-LVAD echocardiography, GIB patients had increased RV diastolic dimension (4.7 ± 0.8 vs. 4.4 ± 0.9 cm, p = 0.02), a higher rate of greater than mild tricuspid valve (TV) regurgitation (73 [60%] vs. 120 [47%], p = 0.006), and underwent TV repair more often (38 [30%] vs. 43 [16%], p = 0.0006) during LVAD implantation. After multivariable adjustment, preoperative greater than mild RV enlargement (hazard ratio [HR] 2.32, 95% CI 1.12-5.03; p = 0.03), TV regurgitation (HR 1.83, CI 1.02-3.44; p = 0.01), and TV repair (HR 3.76, confidence interval [CI] 1.02-4.44; p = 0.01) remained associated with risk of GIB. This finding was driven by the AVM-GIB subgroup. Preoperative RV enlargement and TV regurgitation are associated with post-LVAD AVM-related GIB.