Heart and heart-lung transplantation: An update

Heart and heart-lung transplantation have been established as effective treatments for a wide variety of end-stage cardiopulmonary diseases. Recent years have seen refinements in surgical techniques for cardiopulmonary replacement as well as the selection and postoperative care of thoracic transplant recipients. Despite substantial clinical progress, however, significant problems remain, particularly donor organ shortage, graft rejection, opportunistic infection, and limited organ preservation techniques. Basic and clinical research are currently addressing these problems. In this brief review, we provide an update of our experiences with heart and heart-lung transplantation in the West (particularly at Stanford University), an outline of the active issues in the field, and some thoughts about the development of thoracic transplantation in Asia.