Renal failure is a leading predictor of poor prognosis after cardiac surgery. In a cohort of Medicare beneficiaries, only about 48.4% of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) survived to discharge after LVAD placement, with a median time to death of only 16 days. Compared to this, 96% of patients without ESRD survived to discharge after pump surgery, and their median survival was nearly 6 years (2125 days). The findings were published online in JAMA Internal Medicine. The analysis revealed that one year after LVAD placement, 75.2% of the 155 patients with ESRD had died compared to 20.1% of the 261 patients without ESRD.