BACKGROUND Orthotopic heart transplantation (HTx) is the gold standard treatment for patients with terminal heart failure. As donor organs are limited, patients are often on ventricular assist device (VAD) support before receiving HTx. We aimed to compare the outcome after HTx in patients with and without preoperative VADs as well as in patients who underwent different VAD implantation techniques. METHODS A total of 126 patients underwent HTx at our department between 2010 and 2019 and were retrospectively analyzed. While 47 patients underwent primary transplantation (No VAD), 79 were on VAD support. The preoperative and intraoperative parameters were comparable between the two groups. RESULTS VAD support significantly increased the HTx operation time (
