Heart Transplantation in the USSR and Former Soviet Countries

Experimental and clinical heart transplantation programs in the USSR, Russia, and post-Soviet states are described, including information about early experimental studies conducted by Russian and Soviet scientists in the early to mid-20th century. The novel research of V.P. Demikhov, a Soviet transplantologist famous for performing the first experimental heart transplantations and coronary artery bypass surgeries in the world is highlighted. In addition, the preparation and implementation of the USSR's first clinical heart transplantations during the pre-cyclosporine era (1960-1970s) are described, and the features of anesthesia, cardiopulmonary bypass, and graft protection, as well as causes of heart failure are analyzed. Furthermore, information about the first successful heart transplantation performed by V.I. Shumakov (1987), the first successful heart transplantation programs in the USSR and Russia during the cyclosporine era (after 1980), and anesthesiologic developments for heart transplantation are presented. The current status, modern research, and prospects of heart transplantation in Russia and the implementation of heart transplantation programs in Lithuania, Ukraine, Latvia, Republic of Belarus, and Kazakhstan also are described.