Out of hospital management of LVAD patients during COVID-19 outbreak.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) is a pandemic touching thousands of people all around the world. Patients supported with left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are affected by long‐standing cardiovascular diseases and subjected to variations of the normal cardiovascular physiology, thus requiring an even closer monitoring during the COVID‐19 outbreak. Nevertheless, the COVID‐19 pandemic led to a drastic reduction in routine clinical activities and a consequent risk of looser connections between LVAD patients and their referring center. Potential deleterious effects of such a situation can be a delayed recognition of LVAD‐related complications, misdiagnosis of COVID‐19, and impaired social and psychological well‐being for patients and families. As one of the largest LVAD programs worldwide, we designed a sustainable and enforceable telemonitoring algorithm which can be easily adapted to every LVAD center so as to maintain optimal quality of care for LVAD patients during the COVID‐19 pandemic.