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Updated: Jul 11, 2026
Heterotopic Cervical Heart Transplantation in Mice
Published on: August 25, 2015
Gastrointestinal complications in heart transplant patients: MITOS study
B Díaz1, F González Vilchez, L Almenar
1Hospital Central de Asturias, Oviedo, Spain. beadimo@gmail.com
Introduction:
The most frequent immunosuppressive treatment complications in solid organ transplant recipients are gastrointestinal (GI) disorders.
Materials And Methods:
An observational, cross-sectional study to evaluate the prevalence and management of GI complications in transplanted patients was conducted via a written questionnaire given to doctors at their practice.
Results:
This study included 1788 patients; 181 corresponded to heart transplant recipients. The mean age for the heart transplant patients was 58.7 +/- 11.8 years. The mean time from the transplantation was 5.2 +/- 4.4 years. GI complications were seen in 38.7% of cases. Regarding the clinical management, in 72.9% of cases patients with GI complications received pharmacologic treatment, 86.3% with gastric protectors, 32.8% reduced the dose of some drug, 8.1% interrupted the drug temporarily, and 10.9% discontinued the drug permanently. The drug that was always discontinued was mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), and in 85.7% of cases in which the dose of an immunosuppressive drug was reduced, the reduced drug was also MMF.
Conclusions:
Almost 40% of heart transplant recipients suffered GI complications which affected daily activities in most cases. The most used strategy to manage these complications was based on a treatment with gastric protectors together with dose reduction and/or partial or definitive MMF discontinuation.
