Cardiac transplantation and concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting: our experiences in 11 cases.
BACKGROUND
The shortage of donor hearts for transplantation could be alleviated by including the hearts of older donors. Previous literature revealed similar early and medium-term survival outcomes compared with those of younger donors. This study presents our experience with patients who underwent orthotopic heart transplantation and concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting at our institution.


METHODS
We present our experience with 11 patients with end-stage cardiomyopathy (8 men and 3 women) undergoing orthotopic heart transplantation and concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting from September 2002 to November 2011 at our institute.


RESULTS
All 11 donor organs would otherwise have been rejected, depriving potential recipients of organ transplantation. Two patients received concurrent 2-coronary-artery bypass, and the other 9 patients received concurrent single-coronary-artery bypass during orthotopic heart transplantation. All patients had an uneventful postoperative course, with follow-up completed 3 to 128 months after cardiac transplantation and concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting surgery.


CONCLUSIONS
Our experiences suggest that donor hearts requiring coronary artery bypass grafting, which form a small but significant donor subgroup, can be used effectively and safely when matched to the recipients' age and medical condition.
Heart Center, Cheng-Hsin General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
H S
HS
Yang
Heart Center, Cheng-Hsin General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
I C
IC
Chen
Heart Center, Cheng-Hsin General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Y T
YT
Lee
Heart Center, Cheng-Hsin General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
K C
KC
Lee
Heart Center, Cheng-Hsin General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Y C
YC
Chuang
Heart Center, Cheng-Hsin General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
C Y
CY
Chang
Heart Center, Cheng-Hsin General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. Electronic address: jengwei@mac.com.
J
J
Wei
D000328:Adult; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass; D005260:Female; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged