Donor/recipient aorta size mismatch in heart transplantation: a technical alternative

Aortic mismatch in heart transplantation: readaptation

Great vessel mismatch between donor and recipient is very usual in heart transplantation. Different procedures have been used to manage this situation. A tailoring aortoplasty is described, as a technical alternative, in cases of considerable size incongruence between donor and recipient aortic diameters.

Orthotopic cardiac transplantation with direct caval anastomosis: is it the optimal procedure?

Total excision of the right atrium with a minimal cuff of left atrium remaining around the four pulmonary veins, followed by direct anastomoses on venae cavae, has been proposed as an alternative to the standard procedure described by Shumway and Lower for orthotopic cardiac transplantation. To investigate whether this "anatomic" transplantation should be proposed as the optimal procedure, we prospectively randomized 78 patients having 81 procedures since 1991 into two groups: group I, standard transplantation (n = 40), and group II, "anatomic" transplantation (n = 41). The two groups were statistically similar in recipient age, sex, weight, disease, and status at the time of transplantation. Also similar were donor age, sex, weight, and drug dependency at the time of harvesting. All patients could be weaned from cardiopulmonary bypass with comparable graft ischemic times (group I, 136 +/- 46 minutes; group II, 138 +/- 51 minutes). Immediate recovery of sinus rhythm occurred in 20 cases of group I and 36 cases of group II. Delayed recovery of sinus rhythm in the first postoperative week occurred in 15 cases of group I and 5 cases of group II. Persistence of atrial arrhythmia occurred in 5 cases of group I and never in group II. These differences were highly significant (p < 0.001). Postoperative hemodynamics showed a higher cardiac index at day 1 in group II (4.12 +/- 0.85 L/min per square meter) than in group I (3.77 +/- 0.65 L/min per square meter) (p = 0.04). There were 13 early deaths in group I and 8 early deaths in group II. One death in group I was related to an acute atrioventricular block at 3 weeks with no evidence of cardiac rejection at histologic examination. Two patients in group I (5%) required definitive pacemaker implantation for prolonged sinus node dysfunction. Echocardiographic and Doppler studies of survivors have been performed 2 to 3 months after transplantation. Right atrial area was significantly reduced (p < 0.01) in group II (18 +/- 4.7 cm2) versus group I (24 +/- 7 cm2), as was left atrial area (group I, 24 +/- 4.5 cm2; group II, 20 +/- 5 cm2) (p = 0.01). Mild tricuspid regurgitation was observed in 82% of group I patients versus 57% of group II patients (p < 0.05), inasmuch as mitral regurgitation was comparable (71% in group I, 67% in group II).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)