Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 8, 2026
Implantation of Total Artificial Heart in Congenital Heart Disease
Published on: July 18, 2014
Partial Heart Transplant in a Neonate With Irreparable Truncal Valve Dysfunction
Joseph W Turek1, Lillian Kang1, Douglas M Overbey1
1Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
Importance:
The treatment of neonates with irreparable heart valve dysfunction remains an unsolved problem because there are no heart valve implants that grow. Therefore, neonates with heart valve implants are committed to recurrent implant exchanges until an adult-sized valve can fit.
Objective:
To deliver the first heart valve implant that grows.
Design, Setting, And Participants:
Case report from a pediatric referral center, with follow-up for more than 1 year. Participants were a recipient neonate with persistent truncus arteriosus and irreparable truncal valve dysfunction and a donor neonate with hypoxic-ischemic brain injury.
Intervention:
First-in-human transplant of the part of the heart containing the aortic and pulmonary valves.
Main Outcomes And Measures:
Transplanted valve growth and hemodynamic function.
Results:
Echocardiography demonstrated adaptive growth and excellent hemodynamic function of the partial heart transplant valves.
Conclusions And Relevance:
In this child, partial heart transplant delivered growing heart valve implants with a good outcome at age 1 year. Partial heart transplants may improve the treatment of neonates with irreparable heart valve dysfunction.
