Pregnancy after heterotopic heart transplant removal

Heterotopic heart transplants were introduced in 1974. The technique allows the patient's native heart to be preserved in situ, alongside the transplanted heterotopic donor heart. We present the case of a nulliparous woman who underwent heterotopic heart transplant in infancy, and subsequent explantation of the donor heart eleven years later, when her native heart function recovered. In adulthood the patient attended pre-pregnancy counselling and was awaiting cardiac magnetic resonance imaging when she presented pregnant at 6 weeks-of-gestation. She attended the joint cardiac obstetric and anaesthetic clinic, where she was reviewed monthly and had bi-monthly echocardiograms. At 35 weeks-of-gestation she was admitted to hospital with preeclampsia. After blood pressure control and steroid administration, a category 3 caesarean delivery under spinal anaesthesia was performed. To our knowledge this is the first case report describing pregnancy in a patient with a removed heterotopic heart transplant.