Awake Axillary Impella 5.5 Placement - A Feasibility Trial

Plain-language summary

The Abiomed Impella 5.5 is a surgically placed temporary mechanical support device used in patients in cardiogenic shock. The investigators propose using regional anesthesia (3 separate peripheral nerve blocks) to facilitate Impella 5.5 placement, a procedure which has traditionally been performed under a general anesthetic. Regional anesthesia is a proven and widely used technique to facilitate upper extremity vascular surgery cases (i.e. arteriovenous fistula creation). The investigators believe that employing these blocks in conjunction with intravenous sedation or monitored anesthesia care (MAC anesthesia) - a technique used in all types of cases, even in sick hearts during thranscatheter aortic valve replacements (TAVR) - will avoid the need increased doses of medications to support the blood pressure and cardiac output, avoid the need for post operative mechanical ventilation and intravenous sedation, and speed up the time to participating in physical therapy, time to heart transplant/durable mechanical support/recovery, and time to hospital discharge.

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