Sonia Garg, M.D. Answers Questions On: Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD)

An LVAD, which stands for left ventricular assist device, is a motorized pump that’s implanted in your body and attached to your heart. It circulates blood from your heart to the rest of your body, taking over the function of your failing heart.

Sometimes patients need an LVAD as a temporary “bridge” to a heart transplant. They’re too sick and their own heart can’t last until a heart becomes available, so we use the implantable pump as a bridge to transplant.

In other patients, including those for whom transplant may not be an option, the LVAD is considered their main therapy. These are patients who have a decreased quality of life or symptoms that limit their daily activities. In these patients, we implant the LVAD to help decrease the burden of their heart failure and help them live longer.

After the LVAD goes in, there’s a period of time that is required for postoperative recovery. Patients and their caregivers also have to be trained to take care of their LVAD and make necessary lifestyle changes. After an initial adjustment period, patients start to feel better with improved exercise capacity and quality of life. They are even able to attend family functions, graduations, and weddings or live through births of grandchildren – things they may not have been able to do without the LVAD.