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Updated: Jun 24, 2026

Implantation of Total Artificial Heart in Congenital Heart Disease
Published on: July 18, 2014
Recognition and management of complex rhythm disorders in heterotopic heart transplantation
Christopher M Frank1, Mehdi Razavi, Mohammed Saeed
1Department of Transplant Research, Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
Abstract:
Managing arrhythmias is challenging in patients who have undergone heterotopic heart transplantation because of the superimposed rhythms of the native and donor hearts. We present the case of a 43-year-old man with a previously placed biventricular pacemaker who underwent heterotopic heart transplantation and later developed acute rejection of the donor heart, which led to bradycardia and pause-dependent ventricular fibrillation. The patient remained clinically stable in the short term, likely because of partial recovery of myocardial function in the native heart. He later underwent placement of a pacing lead in the donor heart, allowing linking of the two hearts via a biventricular pacemaker.
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