title: Long-term mortality in adult orthotopic heart transplant recipients.
abstract: Heart transplantation is now regarded as the treatment of choice for end-stage heart failure. To improve long-term results of the heart transplantation, we analyzed causes of death relative to time after transplantation. A total of 201 consecutive patients, 154 (76.6%) males, aged ≥ 17 yr underwent heart transplantation between November 1992 and December 2008. Mean ages of recipients and donors were 42.8 ± 12.4 and 29.8 ± 9.6 yr, respectively. The bicaval anastomosis technique was used since 1999. Mean follow up duration was 6.5 ± 4.4 yr. Two patients (1%) died in-hospital due to sepsis caused by infection. Late death occurred in 39 patients (19.4%) with the most common cause being sepsis due to infection. The 1-, 5-, and 10-yr survival rates in these patients were 95.5% ± 1.5%, 86.9% ± 2.6%, and 73.5% ± 4.1%, respectively. The surgical results of heart transplantation in adults were excellent, with late mortality due primarily to infection, malignancy, and rejection. Cardiac deaths related to cardiac allograft vasculopathy were very rare.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Asan Medical Center, College of Medicine, University of Ulsan, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Ho
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Jae Joong
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Suk Jung
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Choo
authors.forename: Tae-Jin
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Yun
authors.forename: Cheol Hyun
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Jae Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000714:Anastomosis, Surgical / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000401:mortality; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D007165:Immunosuppression Therapy / Q000379:methods; D007239:Infections / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D015996:Survival Rate; D014180:Transplantation / Q000401:mortality*; D016896:Treatment Outcome