Morbimortality in heart and lung transplantation in Cuba: a 20-year follow-up

The first orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT) was performed in 1967 by C.N. Barnard in Cape Town, South Africa. The first OHT in Cuba was performed in 1985. The main purpose of our study was to determine some of the aspects related to the short-, mid-, and long-term morbimortality rates of OHT patients in Cuba. We analyzed the first 120 OHTs (3 heart plus lung transplantations, 4 retransplantations, and 113 heart transplantations) which were performed in Cuba from December 1985 to December 2005. Based on the analysis, we performed a descriptive, retrospective research about morbimortality. There was a predominance of the masculine sex (5.31:1). The overall mean age was 45.13 +/- 11.58 years (range, 14-67 years). The most frequent pretransplant diagnosis was coronary artery disease (CAD; n = 69; 57.5%). Analyzing the Kaplan-Meier survival curve, we observed that the survival probability at 1 year was 83.3%; at 5 years, 45.7%; and at 10 years 19.2%. The complications by frequency were: sepsis (n = 41; 37%), acute rejection episodes (n = 42; 35.0%), and neoplasia (n = 4; 3.3%). Complications in frequency order were sepsis and acute rejection episodes among short term and chronic rejection and chronic renal failure among long-term survivors.