title: The CardioWest total artificial heart for chronic heart transplant rejection.
abstract: Mechanical circulatory support has been used to treat graft failure after heart transplantation, but in patients who needed mechanical circulatory support because of chronic rejection, we have suffered from the treatment because its outcome was catastrophic. Multiple organ failure was often caused by the addition of or increase in immunosuppressive medications, and it is known as a cause of the poor outcomes. The CardioWest total artificial heart was implanted for a case of chronic heart transplant rejection to enable complete withdrawal of immunosuppressive medication. The patient underwent re-heart transplantation, with a good result. This is a new therapeutic technique for chronic graft rejection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Heart Center North Rhine-Westphalia, University of Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Masataka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yoda
authors.forename: Aly
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: El-Banayosy
authors.forename: Gero
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tenderich
authors.forename: Reiner
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Koerfer
authors.forename: Kazutomo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Minami
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002311:Cardiomyopathy, Dilated / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006084:Graft Rejection; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006354:Heart, Artificial; D006801:Humans; D012008:Recurrence