Heart and heart-lung transplantation in the 1990s

After 22 years of clinical application in our unit, heart transplantation is now an accepted therapeutic method. Its indications are well established, its surgical technique and post-operative control and treatment well defined, mostly due to better diagnosis of the rejection episodes with the aid of echocardiography and endomyocardial biopsy and the use of cyclosporin. The results are remarkable with a survival rate of 70% at 5 years, and a full rehabilitation into family, social and often professional life for almost all the survivors. Its use has dramatically changed the prognosis of patients with irreversible cardiac failure but underlines the lack of a sufficient number of donors' hearts. The heart-lung transplantation, making use of the progress of heart transplantation, has been used successfully since 1982 and for the first time in Europe by our group. Improvement in the selection of recipients, lung preservation, surgical technique and post-operative management have brought a new and real hope to patients not only irreversible cardiopulmonary lesions but also terminal pulmonary disease.