Extended use of intra-aortic balloon pumping for 7 weeks is feasible in perinatal cardiomyopathy, providing physiological benefit and survival to discharge, though long-term outcomes may still be limited by intractable heart failure.
Extended IABP may bridge select peripartum cardiomyopathy cases to discharge; single report leaves open long-term survival impact.
A patient with perinatal cardiomyopathy was greatly benefited physiologically by 7 weeks of intra-aortic balloon pumping. This experience documented that extended pumping can be carried out with only manageable complications. Although the patient survived the hospitalization, she died shortly thereafter of intractable congestive failure. Perinatal cardiomyopathy is a potentially reversible condition. Ventricular assistance by intra-aortic balloon pumping may be sustaining during continued systemic treatment of this entity. Further evaluation for longevity of more advanced congestive heart failure from cardiomyopathies needs further clinical trial.
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Brantigan et al. (1976) studied this question.
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