Case report shows successful use of berlin heart in a child with refractory heart failure and sepsis, suggesting need for individualized vads assessments.
Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCMP), a non-ischaemic heart disease involving ventricular enlargement, is the second most common cause of heart failure, with a prevalence of 1:2500. Few studies document the use of paediatric ventricular assist devices (VADs) such as the Berlin Heart EXCOR (BHE) device in those with sepsis. We report an 18-month-old patient, diagnosed with DCMP-induced refractory heart failure, causing septicaemia and thrombocytopenia. Despite this, BHE implantation was used as a last resort bridge to heart transplantation. Our case highlights the importance of carefully managing BHE in high-risk, compassionate-use patients, challenging existing guidelines and encouraging individualised assessments in VAD application.
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Bhardwaj et al. (2025) studied this question.
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