Clinical outcome of heart transplantation at Taipei Veterans General Hospital

Background. Heart transplantation has become a routine procedure and promising therapy resource for patients suffering from end-stage myocardial failure around the world. Since 1987, the number of heart transplantation in our country has been increasing gradually. We reported our experience of heart transplantation during the past 15 years. Methods. From Jul 1987 to Jun 2002, the collection of 40 patients undergoing heart transplantation was presented. We evaluated the clinical outcome of heart transplantation for the patients of end-stage myocardial failure at Taipei Veterans General Hospital. Results. Our heart transplantation project has been embarrassed by the shortage of donors, therefore, the marginal donor and even recipient were considered acceptable. The clinical results revealed that the 30-day mortality rate was 8% and the 1-year, 2-year, 3-year and 5-year survival rates were 90%, 72%, 68% and 62%, respectively. Conclusions. With adequate patient selection and improvement of peri-operative care during the past 15 years, heart transplantation seems to be an efficient therapy for end-stage myocardial failure.