Mycobacterium chimaera left ventricular assist device infections

• DOI: 10.1111/jocs.13150
• Publication Date: 2017-05-16T02:06:39Z
• Authors: Leora B. Balsam; Eddie Louie; Fred Hill; Jamie Levine; Michael S. Phillips
• Keywords: Mycobacterium Infections

A global outbreak of invasive Mycobacterium chimaera infections after cardiac surgery has recently been linked to bioaerosols from contaminated heater-cooler units. The majority cases have occurred valvular or aortic graft and nearly half resulted in death. To date, patients with left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) not characterized the literature. We report two device-associated M. infection continuous-flow LVADs describe challenges related diagnosis management this population.