title: Heart retransplantation for heart allograft failure in Chinese heart transplant recipients: NTUH experience.
abstract: We investigated the short- and long-term results after heart retransplantation in terms of different causes of heart allograft failure. We sought to establish the data of heart retransplantation in Chinese compared with Western counterparts due to differences in heart allograft vasculopathy. From March 1995 to May 2005, eight heart transplantation recipients with allograft failure underwent retransplantation. Heart allograft failure was due to coronary vasculopathy (CAV) in six patients (75%) and acute rejection in two patients (25%). The mean interval to retransplantation was 32 to 84 months (mean 54.3 months). There were five patients who survived after heart retransplantation for CAV and no patient survived after an earlier diagnosis of acute rejection. Heart retransplantation is a feasible method with acceptable long-term survival rate for heart allograft failure. After careful pretransplant evaluation, retransplantation is acceptable. The survival after retransplantation for CAV is notably great than that after acute rejection. Heart retransplantation is the only way for patients who have cardiac allograft failure to achieve long-term survival.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Department of Surgery, National Taiwan University Hospital, No. 7 Chung-shan South Road, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: N K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.forename: N H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: Y S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: H Y
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: R B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.forename: F Y
authors.initials: FY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001706:Biopsy; D002681:China; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012086:Reoperation / Q000401:mortality / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013624:Taiwan; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D017211:Treatment Failure