Rehospitalization after intermittent levosimendan treatment in advanced heart failure patients: a meta‐analysis of randomized trials

AIMS: Intermittent levosimendan administration has been suggested to improve survival in patients with advanced heart failure (AdHF). Quality of life is a key issue for AdHF patients and is negatively affected by frequent hospitalizations. METHODS AND RESULTS: CENTRAL, Google Scholar, MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane Central Register of clinical trials (updated 15/1/2017) were searched for randomized controlled trials investigating the effect of intermittent levosimendan administration in patients with AdHF. The primary outcome was the number of patients requiring rehospitalization 3 months after the end of treatment. A total of 319 patients from six trials were included. Overall pooled analysis showed that the use of levosimendan was associated with a significant reduction in the number of rehospitalizations at 3 months: 33/207 (16%) vs. 39/113 (35%), risk ratio 0.40, 95% confidence interval 0.27–0.59, P < 0.001, I (2) = 0%. This result was confirmed by sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Within the limitations of this meta‐analysis including also studies in which endpoints were not independently adjudicated and not clearly specified, repetitive or intermittent administration of levosimendan for patients with AdHF was associated with a reduction in the rehospitalization rate at 3 months. Large, high‐quality randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm this finding.