Patient 2
A 72 years old man, affected by post-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy and supported with Jarvik 2000 LVAD since 2016, was admitted to our hospital for exit-site infection of the LVAD cable. He presented also several comorbidities such as type 2 diabetes, CKD, atrial fibrillation, dyslipidemia, and a history of endocarditis and two cerebral ischemic strokes. Ten days before the admission he reported an episode of fever, treated at home with paracetamol. During the hospitalization, his roommate suddenly developed an acute respiratory syndrome. He was tested for COVID 19, found positive and died after two days. For this reason, our patient underwent a nasopharyngeal swab resulting positive for SARS-CoV-2.
The exit-site infection was successfully treated with antibiotics (levofloxacin) and no other problems related to the device were found. He did not develop any pulmonary symptoms or CT-scan signs of pneumonia. Patient’s chest X-ray is shown in figure 2. He is still in hospital under monitoring.