The Results of a 2-year Experience in Pediatric Heart Transplant in Rajaie Cardiovascular Medical and Research Center

Abstract

Introduction: Heart transplantation is the ultimate treatment method for many infants and children with the diagnosis of cardiomyopathy or final stages of congenital heart failure. Purpose: This report provides the results of children's heart transplantation in Shahid Rajaie Heart Center during a 2-year period. Methods: Studying retrospective information of heart-transplanted children between 2012 and 2015. Results: Nineteen cases of pediatric heart transplantation were performed between 2012 and 2015 on children aged between 16 months and 14 years with an average age of 10 months. Among these, 14 (73.7%) cases were male and 5 (26.3%) cases were female. Among heart-transplanted cases, 10 (52.6%) cases were diagnosed with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, 1 (5.3%) case was diagnosed with myocarditis, 7 (36.8%) cases were diagnosed with left ventricular (LV) noncompaction, and 1 (5.3%) case was diagnosed with myocarditis and LV noncompaction. After the heart transplantation, two cases suffered from pericardial effusion, three cases suffered from renal failure, three cases suffered from the right heart failure, three cases received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, one case suffered from hypersensitivity to mycophenolate mofetil, and one case suffered from polyradiculopathy. Conclusion: Our short-term experience shows good results with low mortality rates and controlled complications of heart transplantation. Although we are in the early stages and are going through experiences, we expect to get better results given that there is an increase in the number of donors alongside improvements in immunosuppressive treatments and appropriate antibiotics.

Keywords

• Cardiomyopathy
• heart transplantation
• pediatric