Kombined Transplantation

Combined heart-lung transplantation is indicated especially in patients with terminal two-organ failure (heart and lungs). This is usually due to terminal congenital (complex congenital heart defects) or acquired heart failure, which has led secondarily to severe irreversible changes in the pulmonary vessels due to congestion of the blood in the pulmonary vessels. More rarely, primary lung diseases (e.g. cystic fibrosis) lead secondarily to irreversible damage to the heart.

The first heart-lung transplantation in Germany was performed on 13.02.1983 at the cardiac surgery clinic of Munich University under the direction of Prof. Bruno Reichart MD. The recipient, a 27-year old patient with severe heart disease and pulmonary hypertension, received the heart-lung block from a 20-year old donor from Bavaria. Simultaneous heart and lung transplantation had previously been performed only ten times in Americaand only once in Europe (1982 in Paris).

Since the middle of the 1990s, the management of the donor organs (new and better heart and lung preservation solutions during harvesting) and the postoperative treatment of the patients (immunosuppression) have improved considerably. This has led to considerably higher survival rates.