The VAD Journal: The journal of mechanical assisted circulation and heart failure Review Inotropes are linked to Increased Mortality in Heart Failure M Chadi Alraies 1, Bill Tran 1 and Sirtaz Adatya 2* 1 Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA 2 Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago Illinois. * Corresponding author:
[email protected] Keywords Citation: Alrais, M. et al. (2015). Inotropes are linked to Increased Inotropes; Heart failure; ventricular assist device Mortality. VAD Journal , 1. doi:: http://dx.doi.org/10.13023/VAD.2 015.08 Introduction Editor-in-Chief: Maya Guglin, University of Kentucky With the advancement of technology and availability of mechanical Received: June 17, 2015 circulatory support (MCS) devices for the treatment of acute decompensated systolic HF in the 21 st century, the role of inotropes is becoming obsolete. Accepted: June 25, 2015 Medical therapy for acute decompensated heart failure (HF) has not changed Published: June 29, 2015 , 2015 since 1960’s, we still use supplemental oxygen, diuretics, vasodilators and © 2015 The Author(s). This is an inotropes to improve congestion, cardiac output, end organ perfusion and 1 open access article published symptoms related to elevate filling pressures . Despite demonstrated under the terms of the Creative improvements in hemodynamics, the uses of inotropes have not demonstrated Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 4.0 International any improvements in mortality. Mechanical circulatory support (MCS) use is License growing rapidly in the USA, in patients with stage D HF both as destination (https://creativecommons.org/lice nses/by-nc/4.0/ ), which permits therapy and as a bridge to cardiac transplantation.