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A novel technique for en bloc, vascularized, composite thymic, and cardiac co-transplantation1
Hiroshi Ohuchi1, Joren C Madsen, Siyamek Neragi-Miandoab
1Division of Cardiac Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston 02114-2696, USA.
Background:
A surgical technique for co-transplantation of fully vascularized thymus and heart potentially applicable to the clinical setting has not been developed and is the subject of this article.
Methods:
Vascularized right lobe of the thymus was transplanted heterotopically with the heart as a composite graft in rats. This co-transplantation technique was developed and assessed, and viability of the grafted thymus was evaluated histologically.
Results:
Surgical mortality was identical to isolated heart transplantation, and all grafted hearts functioned well. Histology of the thymic grafts at explantation revealed viable thymus with preservation of normal thymic microarchitecture.
Conclusion:
We developed a novel technique to create a composite graft in which fully vascularized and viable thymus was harvested en bloc and co-transplanted with a donor heart allograft.