LVAD as destination therapy in Belgium: unmet needs and political bias

Abstract Objective To determine the impact, unmet needs and the role of left ventricular assist device (LVAD) treatment as destination therapy (DT) of heart failure (HF) in Belgium. At the moment, LVAD is only approved as “bridge to transplant” since health economical analysis calculated an unacceptable high price per QALY (84.00€). Design Retrospective epidemiological study on HF. Setting and parameters Parameters in advanced HF for Belgium, the UK (both non-DT adopters), Germany and the Netherlands (DT policies) are compared. Heart transplant (HTx) rates were consulted from (inter)national t... Mehr ...