Long-Term Withdrawal of Anticoagulation and Antiplatelet Therapy in a HeartMate 3 Left Ventricular Assist Device

Kristina Menchaca; Catherine A Ostos Perez; Nemanja Draguljevic; Jennifer Paciletti; Waqas Ghumman; Cristiano Faber; Sajid Mirza

doi:10.7759/cureus.28779

Long-Term Withdrawal of Anticoagulation and Antiplatelet Therapy in a HeartMate 3 Left Ventricular Assist Device

Cureus. 2022 Sep 4;14(9):e28779. doi: 10.7759/cureus.28779. eCollection 2022 Sep.

Authors

Kristina Menchaca¹, Catherine A Ostos Perez¹, Nemanja Draguljevic², Jennifer Paciletti³, Waqas Ghumman¹, Cristiano Faber³, Sajid Mirza³

Affiliations

¹ Internal Medicine, University of Miami/JFK (John Fitzgerald Kennedy) Medical Center, Atlantis, USA.
² Internal Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, SRB.
³ Cardiology, University of Miami/JFK (John Fitzgerald Kennedy) Medical Center, Atlantis, USA.

Abstract

A 73-year-old male with end-stage heart failure underwent insertion of the HeartMate 3 (Abbott, North Chicago, IL, USA) device. Systemic anticoagulation and antiplatelets were discontinued for 52 days due to postoperative bleeding. After hemorrhage resolution, we restarted warfarin monotherapy targeting an international normalized ratio of 1.8-2.5. Eight months later, there are no reports of pump thrombosis, thromboembolism, and bleeding.

Keywords: anticoagulation; antiplatelets; bleeding; heartmate 3; left ventricular assist device (lvad); pump thrombosis.

Publication types

Case Reports