Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine focuses on current trends in hemoadsorption therapy in the field of heart failure.

It is a great pleasure for our team to act as guest editors for this Special Issue of Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine. The incidence of heart failure is projected to increase by almost 50% by 2030 in all western countries due to their aging population. New concepts, platforms and devices for mechanical circulatory support (MCS) will continue to be further developed in the near future due to the relative scarcity of transplant organs. Consequently, the use of MCS has grown significantly, particularly as a bridge to transplantation.

Extracorporeal blood purification techniques have recently gained attention in various fields of clinical medicine and especially in heart failure patients, for VAD implantation, during heart transplantation, as well as during ex-vivo perfusion in order to improve donor organ function. In the setting of “donation after circulatory death”, ex-vivo perfusion combined with hemoadsorption holds particular promise for the preservation of organ function and thus leading to a higher percentage of transplantable organs.

Hemoadsorption has the ability to modulate the immune response not only by attenuating pro-inflammatory cytokines, but also by lowering the levels of myoglobin, creatine kinase, lactate and many other mediators. Moreover, in the clinical setting it is used postoperatively to decrease inotropic support.

The aim of this Special Issue is therefore to provide readers with an update of the current use of hemoadsorption technologies in the growing field of heart failure therapy.

Prof. Dr. Nandor Marczin, Prof. Dr. Aaron Popov, Prof. Dr. Eric de Waal, Prof. Dr. Daniel Wendt and Prof. Dr. Alexander Weymann

Guest Editors