Heart transplantation in Ukraine: experience of one center

Main Article Content

B. M. Todurov
S. M. Chaikovska
G. I. Kovtun
R Montgomery
G Dellgren

Abstract

The aim – to show and analyze our own experience of performing orthotopic heart transplantation in patients with end-stage chronic heart failure.
Materials and methods. The work retrospectively analyzed the results of 106 cases of orthotopic heart transplantation in adults and children, which were performed by the heart transplantation team of the Heart Institute of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine during 2019–2024.
Results. Standard donor hearts were received by 67 (63.3 %) recipients. Marginal donor hearts were used in 39 (36.7 %) cases. In 97 (91.5 %) cases, patients underwent isolated orthotopic heart transplantation. In other cases, coronary artery bypass grafting was performed in 4 (3.75 %) cases, correction of valvular pathology of the donor heart – in 4 (3.75 %) cases, and correction for congenital heart disease – in 1 case. The median duration of ischemia time of the donor heart was 80 (70; 95) minutes. Among the postoperative complications, the most common was a primary graft dysfunction – in 11 (10.4 %) cases. There was no statistical difference in the frequency of postoperative complications between patients with marginal or standard donor hearts. One-year and two-year survival according to Kaplan–Meier was 88.4 ± 4.5 % (95 % CI 81.9–95.5 %) and 86.7 ± 5.7 % (95 % CI 75.9–94.5 %).
Conclusions. Our first experience with heart transplantations showed encouraging immediate and medium-term results. Due to the use of marginal donor hearts, we were able to increase the donor organ pool by 40 %. Follow-up is ongoing.

Article Details

Keywords:

heart failure, heart transplantation, marginal donor heart, cardiopulmonary bypass

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