Early postoperative care of the cardiac transplantation patient: routine considerations and immunosuppressive therapy

The authors have attempted to outline the current state of the art with respect to the early postoperative management of the cardiac transplant recipient with special attention to immunosuppressive therapies. The commonly used agents, as well as the most successful combination regimens, have been described along with the current levels of expectation regarding rates of rejection and infection. Much has been learned regarding the management of these problems. Much remains to be learned to further decrease the incidence of postoperative infection and rejection and, equally if not more importantly, studies to investigate the etiology of transplant coronary artery disease need to be undertaken such that measures to delay or prevent its occurrence and/or arrest its progression can be instituted.