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.

Long-term follow-up of simultaneous heart and kidney transplantation with single donor allografts: report of nine cases.

Bruschi G, Busnach G, Colombo T, Radaelli L, Pedrazzini G, Garatti A, Sansalone CV, Frigerio M, Vitali E

Department of Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery A. De Gasperis, Niguarda Ca' Granda Hospital, Milan, Italy. giuseppe.bruschi@fastwebnet.it

BACKGROUND: Combined heart-kidney transplantation is an accepted therapeutic option for patients with end-stage heart disease associated with severely impaired renal function. We report our single-institutional experience with this combined procedure and long-term follow-up. METHODS: Between April 1989 and August 2006, 9 patients underwent combined simultaneous heart-kidney transplantation at our center. Seven patients were male (mean age, 45.2 +/- 10.12 years); 7 patients were on dialysis at transplantation. Whenever possible, donors were selected on the basis of ABO identity, weight (ratio > or = 0.9), on-site or short-distance procurement, young age, low inotropic support, and normal renal function. RESULTS: Mean ischemic time was 132.2 +/- 57.0 minutes for the cardiac allograft and 6.0 +/- 1.0 hours for the kidney. Surgical procedure was uneventful in all patients. One patient died in the intensive care unit 41 days after transplantation. Three patients died during follow-up, 1 of lung neoplasm after 6 years, 1 of cerebral stroke after 34 months, and 1 of infection and multiorgan failure after 148 months. The mortality rates led to an overall actuarial survival of 88.9% +/- 10.4% at 1 year, 77.8% +/- 13.6% at 5 years, and 64.8% +/- 16.5% at 10 years. Seven patients lived beyond 5 years, 4 beyond 10 years, and the patient who has longest survival is patient no. 1, with 17 years of follow-up. One patient lost kidney function after 113 months. CONCLUSIONS: In selected patients, with coexisting end-stage cardiac and renal failure, combined heart-kidney transplantation with allograft from the same donor proved to have satisfactory short- and long-term results, with a low incidence of both cardiac and renal allograft rejection.

Published 23 July 2007 in Ann Thorac Surg, 84(2): 522-7.
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