Bridge therapy

Bridge therapy is therapy intended, in transportation metaphor, to serve as a figurative bridge to another stage of therapy or health, helping a patient pass a challenging period caused by particular severe illness. There are various types of bridge therapy, such as bridge to transplant, bridge to candidacy, bridge to decision, bridge to recovery, and anticoagulation bridge. Bridge therapy exists in contrast to destination therapy, which is the figurative destination rather than a bridge to something else.Bridge to transplant: Such therapy can provide an opportunity for optimization of their clinical condition to successfully reach organ transplant, still being eligible for transplant after spending time waiting for an organ to become available. In patients with decompensated end-stage heart failure it can provide hemodynamic stabilization and potential end-organ function recovery allowing "bridging" to transplantation. For example, a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) often serves as a bridge to heart transplant, locoregional therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma can serve as a bridge to liver transplant, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) or lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) can serve as a bridge to lung transplant. Bridge to candidacy: A patient was too critically ill to be a candidate for a certain therapy or transplantation, but the bridge therapy can carry them to a state of being eligible for transplantation; for example, ECMO as a bridge to nontransplant cardiac surgery. Bridge to decision: A decision will soon be made about what to do next, but fir