Prophylactic Negative Pressure Wound Therapy for Cannula Sites of Extracorporeal Biventricular Assist Devices

We report wound management using a vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) system for the cannula sites of long-term extracorporeal biventricular assist devices (BiVADs). A 23-year old Chinese female patient with a diagnosis of giant cell myocarditis needed extracorporeal BiVADs for more than 9 months. When the cannula sites appeared necrotic 3 months after BiVADs placement, she underwent negative pressure wound therapy prophylactically for four cannula sites, using a VAC system for 3 months, followed by no infections. Such prophylactic VAC therapy may be useful to avoid cannula site infections, which is still a fatal adverse event causing sepsis, especially in patients with extracorporeal BiVADs.