Prevalence and management of driveline infections in mechanical circulatory support - a single center analysis

BACKGROUND: Driveline infections in continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices (cf-LVAD) remain the most common adverse event. This single-center retrospective study investigated the risk factors, prevalence and management of driveline infections. METHODS: Patients treated after cf-LVAD implantation from December 2014 to January 2020 were enrolled. Baseline data were collected and potential risk factors were elaborated. The multi-modal treatment was based on antibiotic therapy, daily wound care, surgical driveline reposition, and heart transplantation. Time of infection development, freedom of reinfection, freedom of heart transplantation, and death in the follow-up time were investigated. RESULTS: Of 75 observed patients, 26 (34.7%) developed a driveline infection. The mean time from implantation to infection diagnosis was 463 (±399; range, 35–1400) days. The most common pathogen was Staphylococcus aureus (n = 15, 60%). First-line therapy was based on antibiotics, with a primary success rate of 27%. The majority of patients (n = 19; 73.1%) were treated with surgical reposition after initial antibiotic therapy. During the follow-up time of 569 (±506; range 32–2093) days, the reinfection freedom after surgical transposition was 57.9%. Heart transplantation was performed in eight patients due to resistant infection. The overall mortality for driveline infection was 11.5%. CONCLUSIONS: Driveline infections are frequent in patients with implanted cf-LVAD, and treatment does not efficiently avoid reinfection, leading to moderate mortality rates. Only about a quarter of the infected patients were cured with antibiotics alone. Surgical driveline reposition is a reasonable treatment option and does not preclude subsequent heart transplantation due to limited reinfection freedom. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13019-021-01589-6.