Korean J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg.  1999 Jun;32(6):504-509.

Animal Experiments of Heart Transplantation for Complicated Congenital Heart Disease in Neonate

• Park YH
• Yoon CS
• Jung WS
• Kim MO
• Cho BK

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Heart transplantation is considerated for a selected certain group of complicated congenital heart disease in neonates because corrective surgery is very difficult and has high mortality. Precise planning of transplantation is necessary to adequately fit the donor heart to the recipient. MATERIAL AND METHOD: We have performed 4 neonatal pig heart transplantations to test the technical feasibility. Experiment 1: The transplantation was performed using the same technique as the adult heart transplantation. Experiment 2: The transplantation for hypoplastic left heart syndrome was simulated as we reconstructed the whole aortic arch with donor aorta. Experiment 3: The heart transplantation was done with radical pulmonary artery reconstruction. Experiment 4: The experiment was performed for a long term survival. RESULT: Preoperative planning was very important for adequate fitting. All animals could be weaned from cardiopulmonary bypass, however, two animals died due to bleeding at pulmonary artery and left atrium.
CONCLUSION
We concluded that the neonatal heart transplantation can be applied in some complicated Further using animal model is mandatory.

Keyword

Heart transplantation; Infant, neonate; Heart defect, congenital

MeSH Terms

Adult
Animal Experimentation*
Animals*
Aorta
Aorta, Thoracic
Cardiopulmonary Bypass
Heart Atria
Heart Defects, Congenital*
Heart Transplantation*
Heart*
Hemorrhage
Humans
Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome
Infant, Newborn*
Models, Animal
Mortality
Pulmonary Artery
Tissue Donors