The EXCOR (Berlin Heart) is a pulsatile paracorporeal ventricular assist device (VAD) that is surgically placed in a patient’s severely failing heart as a bridge to transplant or recovery. In December 2011, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the EXCOR for use in pediatric patients, the first VAD approved for this population. Typically, this VAD is used in the context of a 2-ventricle cardiac system. An example would be a patient born with normal cardiac anatomy who acquired a viral illness that caused severe dilated cardiomyopathy. The University of Florida Health Shands Children’s Hospital (UFHS) has successfully implanted these devices in patients with a failing functionally univentricular circulation. An example seen at UFHS is a patient with hypoplastic left heart syndrome with large coronary sinusoids. Nurses in the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (PCICU) at UFHS have many years of experience providing bedside care for patients with failing...

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