PLACE: Multicenter Study for Right Ventricular Failure on Mechanical Cardiocirculatory Supports

Isolated acute right ventricular failure (aRVF) is associated with poor prognosis in different scenarios. In severe conditions, temporary mechanical cardiocirculatory support (tMCS) is required. PLACE is an international, retrospective, multicenter registry including 17 centers that investigated patients affected by isolated aRVF and treated with various types of tMCS from January 2000 to December 2020. The registry included 644 (69.6% males, mean age: 55 years) patients. The most frequent etiologies were post-left ventricular assist device implantation (LVAD) and postcardiotomy shock. These patients received mostly mechanical circulatory support (MCS) and veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Mean tMCS duration was 9 days, weaning was achieved in 70.5% of the patients, and the major cause of death on support was multiorgan failure (50.5%). The mortality rate was 45 and 48.4% in-hospital and at 3 month follow-up, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified age, aRVF due to acute pulmonary hypertension, bilirubin level, and oliguria or anuria at tMCS implantation as risk factors for in-hospital mortality. Conversely, aRVF after LVAD was found to be associated with a lower risk of early mortality. In-hospital and 3 months mortality occurred in less than half of the aRVF-supported subjects. Furthermore, several preimplant aspects such as age, organ function, and type of tMCS are independently associated with in-hospital and 3 month mortality.