[Development and importance of combined organ transplantation]

In 1966, Kelly and Lillehei transplanted a pancreas together with a kidney in a young patient suffering from end-stage diabetic nephropathy. Since this first combined organ transplantation, various organs have been transplanted together: heart-lung (Cooley 1969), liver-kidney (Margreiter 1983), liver-pancreas-stomach-small bowel (Starzl 1983), heart-liver (Starzl, Bahnson 1984), heart-lung-liver (Wallwork, Calne 1986), and liver-small bowel (Grant 1990). Although some of these combined organ transplants will only occasionally be necessary, some others such as kidney-pancreas, heart-lung, or liver-kidney have already gained clinical relevance.