Experience with orthotopic heart transplantation

Improving results of heart transplantation have led to a substantial increase in the number of transplantations performed each year ever since the early 1980s. The paper offers a review of our own experience with orthotopic heart transplantation. In the period between January 1984 and October 1986, a total of 11 transplantations has been carried out. Two patients died in the early postoperative period, nine were discharged from the hospital. There were two deaths in the late postoperative period. The seven surviving patients are in a satisfactory condition. Experience gathered hitherto in the world, and confirmed by our own results, shows that heart transplantation has become a therapeutic modality in patients selected on the basis of stringent criteria. The procedure, however, must be performed only in centres having a sufficient body of experience in cardiology, cardiac surgery, and transplantation of other organs.