How Serious Is Low Ejection Fraction?

Posted on Mon, 14 Apr 2014

Question: Patient in St Vincents hospital Sydney, the ICU suffered a severe SCA on 14th March, and is on the HL Machine. A Triple By Pass done. The doctors plan to wean him off on Tuesday 25th March but he has a poor ejection rate right now at around 20. Would he be able to survive the change? Not safe! I believe that it could be possible (with meds) to increase gradually over months…perhaps? He had a few 'silent' heart attacks.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Shruti Rijhwani (1 hour later)

Brief Answer: Follows. Detailed Answer: Dear Sir, Thank you for posting your query on HCM. Well looking into your problem I would like to tell you that the patient seems to be really sick . Seeing all the information I think the doctors who are treating him will remain the best judge for the situation . Only they can assess the overall situation and take a decision whether to remove the heart lung machine or not . Though the LVEF is low but still he can be weaned off , if he will not be able to tolerate it then they can wait but patient generally are able to tolerate if other comorbidities are not there. Nothing can be said concretely but yes weaning him off will be the best policy. Take care. Dr. Shruti

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar