[Long-term Outpatient Management and Shared Care Practices to Prevent Rehospitalization and Improve Quality of Life in Patients with Implantable Ventricular Assist Device].

According to a statistical report from the Japanese registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support, the readmission rate is 85% at three years, mainly due to driveline infection. The prevention of adverse events such as driveline infections is important to improve the quality of life of patients, an issue that needs to be emphasized more in these days when longer waiting periods for transplantation and destination therapy are becoming more common. In addition to monthly outpatient visits, we provide weekly e-mail consultations and promote collaboration with shared care facilities. Our driveline infection rate was 20% at three years, and the readmission rate was an excellent 27% at three years. The results suggest that our long-term outpatient management may have contributed to the improvement of quality of life by reducing adverse events such as driveline infections and preventing rehospitalization.