[Heart transplantation 1985. Experience of the Pitié]

Heart transplant surgery has come of age over the last four years, after 17 years of clinical application: indications have been specified, techniques systematized and treatment and post-operative follow-ups have been clarified. The results are remarkable: survival at four years is more than 80 per cent, with normal socio-familial and often professional reintegration for almost all heart transplant patients. Increased application of heart transplant surgery in the months to come will transform prognosis in patients presenting irreversible cardiac lesions, but will raise the problem of the supply of donor organs.