Temporary Total Artificial Heart

• Temporary Total Artificial Heart:

  • originally involved a large console the size of a dishwasher, so could only be used by adults, but can now be used by children as well due toa decreased size
• Physiotherapy conditions:

  • underlying condition
  • level of support from the VAD (fixed pump speeds) and current circulating volume
  • other devices; CRT and/or ICD
  • may have sternotomy scare
  • limited ability to monitor changing cardiovascular function
  • rely more on subjective markers, observations and RPE (little evidence for use of Borg with VADs)
  • drive line insertion will limit trunk ROM