[Heart-lung transplantation]

The combined transplantation of heart and lungs, first done successfully by the Stanford Team (USA) in 1982, at present seems to be superseding lung transplantation alone, and has broadened the indications of heart transplantation to include terminal heart failure with fixed pulmonary arterial hypertension. After reviewing the causes for failure in lung transplants, the authors stress the superiority of heart-lung transplants compared to isolated lung transplantations: healing of the tracheal anastomosis, ease of detection of rejects by endomyocardial biopsy and the lack of inhomogeneity of the ventilation/perfusion ratios. This operation still poses problems of surgical technique as the mediastinal nerves need to be preserved and the risk of haemorrhage linked to the mediastinal dissection or to the eventual pulmonary separation under cardiopulmonary bypass is important. Donor subjects for cardiopulmonary transplantation are rare as they ought to have a thoracic cage of matching size to the recipient and to be free of pulmonary infection and trauma. The post-operative complications are essentially those of immediate haemorrhage, graft rejection, pulmonary oedema and infection. The late complications are coronary atherosclerosis and bronchiolitis obliterans. The indications of such a transplant are currently reserved for primary or secondary pulmonary hypertension and to respiratory failure with a normal thoracic cage and ventilatory mechanics.