Heart Transplant

TOPIC
HEART TRANSPLANTATION AND ITS MANAGEMENT

BY SHABNAM JAHAN MPTh-II Yr

INTRODUCTION
• A heart transplant is a surgical procedure performed to

remove the diseased heart from a patient and replace it with a healthy one from an organ donor.1
• In order to remove the heart from the donor, two or more

physicians must declare the donor brain-dead1
• Worldwide, about 3,500 heart transplants are performed

every year.2
• Post-operation survival periods now average 15 years.2

BACKGROUND3
• The first successful heart transplant was done in South

Africa in 1967 by Dr. Christian Barnard; and the patient only lived for 18 days.
• The second operation was also performed in South

Africa in January 1968 and the patient lived for 18 months.
• Between then and middle of 1969, 135 further cardiac

transplant were carried out in 60 centre's throughout the world but the survival rate did not improve as fast as had been hoped.

• In 1974,Barnard and his associates in South Africa

started to concentrate on the Heterotopic tech. since then the life expectancy has steadily improved.
• Heart transplantation re- started in Britain in 1979 at

Papworth Hospital and in Jan. 1980 at Harefield Hospital.
• It is interesting to note that that the longest surviving

heart transplant recepient is a Frenchman who underwent his operation in 1968 and has lived for almost 24 yrs.
• First successful heart transplantation in India was done

by Dr. Venugopal in AIIMS in 1994.

Indications4
A heart transplant treats irreversible heart failure when other treatment options fail. Heart transplants are performed for several types of cardiac illness, including:
• Cardiomyopathy, an illness that damages the • • • •

heart muscle (47%) Severe coronary artery disease (about 42% of cases) Complex forms of Congenital heart defects (8%) Re-Transplantation (about 3%) Irreparably damaged heart valves (2%)

Absolute & Relative Contraindications
At present,...