[Transplantation of the heart-lung complex (the first clinical experience)]

The article deals with experience in the first transplantation of a heart-lung complex in the USSR. The recipient was a 34-year-old male with dilation cardiomyopathy. It was decided to perform the transplantation because the terminal stage of cardiac failure and secondary pulmonary hypertension developed (cardiac index 1.3 l/m, pressure in pulmonary artery 80/50 mm Hg, resistance of pulmonary vessels 10.4 units after Wood). The heart and lung were transplanted from a 19-year-old male who died from a craniocerebral injury. Cyclosporine, metipred , imuran, dopamine in small doses, cardiotonics, and antibiotics were given in the postoperative period; the patient was kept on artificial respiration for 48 hours. For up to 10 days the patient's condition was relatively stable and his consciousness was clear. Bilateral pneumonia developed, however, from which he died on the 12th postoperative day. The article discusses organizational problems and some questions of immunosuppressive therapy, immunological monitoring, and the management of patients after transplantation of a heart-lung complex.