Heart Transplant Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Heart Transplant, including details on risks, prognosis, procedure, surgery, organ donation.

Heart transplantation in chile: preliminary report from the Gustavo Fricke hospital in Vina del Mar.

Aranguiz-Santander E, Merello L, Pedemonte O, Torres H, Vera A, Alburquerque J

Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Gustavo Fricke Hospital, Vina del Mar, and the University of Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile. eransant@hotmail.com

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyze our results as the national reference center of the public health network in Chile. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Retrospective analysis of all transplantations performed between 1998 and 2005 was done and actuarial survival estimates were calculated according to Kaplan-Meier. RESULTS: Heart transplantations were performed in 25 patients of mean age 43 +/- 11.2 years. Eight patients (32%) were transplanted from a national priority list; all patients were under intensive care support with inotropic therapy, 4 were mechanically ventilated, and 1 required an intra-aortic counter pulsation balloon. The average time on the waiting list was 145 days in nonurgent cases and 9.4 days in urgent ones. Perioperative mortality occurred in 1 patient (4%) due to primary graft failure; 2 patients died due to infectious complications during the first year of follow-up; and 1 died due to a non-cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection at 51 months after transplantation. Two patients developed acute rejection with full recovery. The most common morbidities in the current series were hypertension (71%); hyperlipidemia (71%); renal dysfunction (24%); diabetes (10%); and vasculopathy (10%). Actuarial survival rates were 87.2% and 74.7% at 12 and 86 months, respectively. At 7 years follow-up, 20 patients were in New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class I and one Class II. CONCLUSION: Our heart transplantation program showed comparable results in the short and midterm follow-up when compared with other international reports, confirming that heart transplantation is an excellent therapeutic option for patients with end-stage heart failure.

Published 20 April 2007 in Transplant Proc, 39(3): 619-21.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2005-2008 Heart Transplant Research Today. All Rights Reserved.