Anesthesia management of a patient who had twice heart transplantations

Abstract

Heart retransplantation is a rare situation. 100-120 patients are retransplanted annually worldwide, which is 2-4 % of all adult heart transplants. Here we present anesthetic management of a case, who had heart retransplantation and needs a hysterectomy operation. After a careful preoperative evaluation, including coronary angiography, echocardiography, and detailed blood analysis, she had a hysterectomy operation. She was discharged from the hospital without any complications. Heart transplant recipients have some unique problems. They have a denervated heart, so the medications used during the operation may have altered pharmacodynamics. These patients take immunosuppressant agents, which may have some serious side effects. They should be evaluated carefully for their cardiovascular status, their comorbidities, and the medications they use, during the perioperative period. Also, cooperation with the patient's cardiac transplant team is very important during the entire period. [Med-Science 2025; 14(2.000): 581-4]

Keywords

• heart retransplantation
• non-cardiac surgery
• anesthesia