Abstract
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the western world. Approximately five million people in the United States have congestive heart failure (CHF), with two hundred fifty thousand of those people in the most advanced stages of CHF. Left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) are currently the state-of-the-art treatment for patients with end stage cardiac failure who are not a candidate for heart transplant. LVADs are powered by external power sources that connect to the pump via a percutaneous lead (driveline). The driveline exits the body, typically from the right quadrant, creating a chronic wound that renders that site prone to infection. Infectious complications are a leading cause of mortality in the LVAD patient population. The driveline site is often the entry point of infection which can lead to blood stream and pump pocket infections. LVAD driveline infection rates, on average, are around 13%. At Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH), our infection rate from 2013-2020 was 19%. In November 2020, the LVAD program here at LVH placed Silverlon patches in all dressing kits for all newly implanted LVAD patients. The addition of Silverlon was the only intervention done to the driveline dressing kits. From November 2020 to September 2022, the driveline infection rate went from 19% to 0%. This innovative plan of care has allowed our team to implement a simple, cost-effective method to decrease infectious complications and improve patient outcomes. A secondary finding was a decrease in the readmission rates. In 2021, 30% of all readmissions were directly related to driveline site infections. So far in 2022, we have had “0” readmissions related to driveline site infections. This is a 100% reduction in readmissions related to driveline site infections. This decreased our total readmissions by 34%. Based on the results of our “best practice” change, a treatment regime involving the use of Silverlon on drivelines has demonstrated significant reduction of driveline related bloodstream and pocket infections, as well as decreased readmissions.Figure 1. Data graphs depicting the decrease in driveline site infections and readmission rates
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call