Adaptive servo-ventilation therapy reduces hospitalization rate in patients with severe heart failure

Abstract

Adaptive servo-ventilation (ASV) therapy is a recently developed non-pharmacological therapy that has been reported to improve cardiac function and survival in patients with severe congestive heart failure (CHF). However, a recent large randomized study suggested that ASV does not improve survival in patients with reduced ejection fraction. It remains unclear whether ASV treatment can reduce the hospitalization rate of CHF patients. We thus examined the frequency of hospital admission before and after initiation of ASV therapy in patients with CHF. Hospitalization frequencies during the 12months before and 12months after initiation of ASV therapy (24 consecutive months) were retrospectively compared in 44 consecutive patients with severe CHF. The admission frequency decreased from 1.9±1.4 admissions in the 12months before ASV to 1.1±1.6 admissions in the 12months after ASV initiation (P<0.001). The decrease tended to be greater in those patients with more frequent hospitalizations before ASV initiation. ASV therapy reduces hospital admissions in patients with severe CHF who are receiving maximum medical treatment.