title: Pediatric recipient survival beyond 15 post-heart transplant years: a single-center experience.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We evaluated late survival among pediatric heart transplant patients who have lived more than 15 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a retrospective chart review of the pediatric patients who underwent heart transplantation (HTx) between 1985 and 1998. Multivariate and univariate analyses were examined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 183 recipients, of whom 151 are currently alive. Age at HTx ranged from 0 days to 17.48 years (median 56 days). Pretransplant diagnoses included congenital heart disease 142 (77.6%), cardiomyopathy 38 (20.8%), and tumor 3 (1.6%). Pretransplant renal dysfunction was present in 58 patients (31.7%). Perioperative peritoneal dialysis was instituted in 15 patients, all recovered. During the follow-up period (median 20.2 years), 17 (9.3%) have had renal transplants, and 2 require hemodialysis. There were 32 deaths from the following: cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV); 11 (34.3%); posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease 6 (18.8%); acute rejection 4 (12.5%); sepsis 2 (6.3%); multiorgan failure 1 (3.1%); and unknown 8 (25%). Immunosuppressive therapy for the living patients consists of monotherapy 25 (17.7%), dual therapy 87 (61.7%), triple therapy 24 (17%), quadruple therapy 5 (3.5%), and 10 unknown. Cardiac re-Tx was required for CAV in 30 patients and for graft failure in 6 patients. Four patients required a third transplant for CAV. For those who survived more than 15 years after HTx, actuarial survival to 20 years and 25 years is 82% and 78%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pediatric HTx provides acceptable long-term survival. Cardiac re-Tx and renal transplantation offer reasonable palliation for recipients who develop CAV and renal dysfunction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California.
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Copeland
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California. Electronic address: arazzouk@llu.edu.
authors.forename: Anees
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Razzouk
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chinnock
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California.
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Deming
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California.
authors.forename: Nahidh
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hasaniya
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California.
authors.forename: Leonard
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bailey
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005544:Forecasting; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006085:Graft Survival; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D015996:Survival Rate / Q000639:trends