The place of heart transplantation: the French experience.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Cabrol.
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We report the mid-term results obtained with 279 "low profile" Liotta xenografts implanted at the Hôpital de la Pitié, Paris, in 257 patients between February, 1981 and November, 1984. There were 86 aortic, 138 mitral, 11 triscupid and 22 mitral-aortic valve replacements. The wavy suture ring of the prosthesis makes it "low profile". The Liotta valve is of particular interest in certain anatomical situations such as aortic annulus more dilated than the supra-coronary aorta, or small right and left ventricular cavities. The overall operative mortality rate was 8.6%. The 236 survivors were followed up for 3 to 48 months, a total of 374.3 patients-years. The overall actuarial survival rate at 3 years is 92.2%. Although there were few thromboembolic accidents, about one-third of the patients remain under anticoagulant therapy (0.86 episodes for 100 patients-years). Globally, 98.1% of the patients are free of any thromboembolic accident. Deterioration occurred 29 and 44 months respectively after implantation in two patients aged 9 and 20 years (0.57 episodes for 100 patients-years). Three cases of endocarditis on prosthesis were observed. Altogether, almost 91.2% of the patients have had no complication for 3 years, and indeed they functionally improved, most of them now being in class I or II (aortic valve 97%, mitral valve 87.2%). Thirty-eight patients underwent repeated catheterization at rest and during exercise. Mean transvalvular gradient was 12.4 mmHg in aortic valve patients and 5.9 mmHg in mitral valve patients. Mean functional valve area was 1.6 cm in aortic valve patients and 2.1 cm in mitral valve patients, and it clearly increased during exercise.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
In conclusion, after almost 20 years of clinical application and due to much progress during that time by the pioneers of the method, cardiac transplantation is now a safe and reliable treatment for patients in intractable cardiac failure untreatable by other medical or surgical means. Several challenging problems remain to be resolved by the many active and excellent centers now engaged in this promising field.
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Performed for the first time in the world, in December 1967, by Barnard in Capetown, and for the first time in Europe by our team in April 1968, cardiac transplantation has now 20 years of clinical applications. A best selection of the recipients, a more precise selection of donors, refinements in surgical technique, a better and earlier diagnosis of post-operative complications, more effective therapeutic means especially cyclosporin, have brought us, from 1981, such major improvements that many teams were prompted to resume the procedure. In our experience of more than 400 transplants at La Pitié Hospital, a five-year follow-up shows that 70 p. cent of the patients are alive, having resumed a normal familial, social, professional and often sporting life. Much progress remains to be achieved, but this procedure now seems to be quite common if not routine, only limited by the insufficient number of donors.
In order to determine the predictors of operative risk in coronary bypass surgery, we have studied 2112 consecutive patients who underwent isolated coronary bypass surgery between January 1979 and September 1984. The overall operative mortality (OM) was 4.4 percent (3.5 percent during the last 3 years). OM increases significantly with age (from O before the age of 30 to 12.3 percent after 70), the functional class (FC) of angina, the FC of dyspnea (NYHA), the creatinine blood level (23.5 percent if greater than 200 mumol/l), the left ventricular end-diastolic pressure and in case of reoperation (16.7 percent), as well as in women (11.6 percent). There is a trend toward higher OM in case of past history of ventricular tachycardia or arterial hypertension, atherosclerotic disease of the lower extremities, left ventricular dysfunction or severe stenosis of the left main coronary artery. OM is not increased in patients with multivessel disease, diabetes or with a past history of myocardial infarction, and is even decreased in obese patients. The variables selected by multivariate analysis were: creatinine blood level, then angina FC, sex, dyspnea FC, age, the absence os obesity, left ventricular dysfunction, the year of surgery and finally reoperation. These results, mainly based on simple clinical variables, should facilitate the therapeutic decisions in borderline indications of coronary bypass surgery.
Supraventricular tachyarrhythmias are common after coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) and may have deleterious hemodynamic consequences. To determine if acebutolol, a cardioselective beta-blocking drug, prevents such tachyarrhythmias after CABG, 100 consecutive patients, aged 30 to 77 years (mean +/- standard deviation 53 +/- 9), were entered into a randomized, controlled study. Exclusion criteria were: contraindications to beta-blocking drugs, left ventricular aneurysm, major renal failure, history of cardiac arrhythmia and cardiac arrhythmia during the immediate postoperative period. From 36 hours after surgery until discharge (usually on the seventh day), 50 patients were given 200 mg of acebutolol (or 400 mg if weight was more than 80 kg) orally twice a day (dosage than modified to maintain a heart rate at rest between 60 and 90 beats/min). The 50 patients in the control group did not receive beta-blocking drugs after CABG. The 2 groups were comparable in angina functional class, ejection fraction, number of diseased vessels, antianginal therapy before CABG, number of bypassed vessels and duration of cardiopulmonary bypass All patients were clinically evaluated twice daily and had continuous electrocardiographic monitoring and daily electrocardiograms. A 24-hour continuous electrocardiogram was recorded in the last 20 patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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Heart transplant surgery has come of age over the last four years, after 17 years of clinical application: indications have been specified, techniques systematized and treatment and post-operative follow-ups have been clarified. The results are remarkable: survival at four years is more than 80 per cent, with normal socio-familial and often professional reintegration for almost all heart transplant patients. Increased application of heart transplant surgery in the months to come will transform prognosis in patients presenting irreversible cardiac lesions, but will raise the problem of the supply of donor organs.
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1,000 endomyocardial biopsies performed in 110 patients treated by cardiac graft were reviewed. These biopsies permitted early detection of acute rejection after cyclosporin treatment and a good appreciation of its intensity. By this method, almost all rejection episodes were resolved after adequate treatment. Chronic rejection was diagnosed by arteriography used in vivo or in cardiac transplants removed by surgery or necropsy. Rejection provoked an obliterative fibrous endarteritis often complicated by atherosclerosis and its ischaemic consequences. 34 autopsies were performed in patients dead at a variable time after cardiac or cardio-pulmonary transplantation. In early death (14 cases), graft failure and systemic disorders were observed. Acute and chronic rejection was noted less frequently (9 cases). Systemic infections (10 cases) occurred either early (post-surgical complications) or late (bacterial, fungal and parasitic lesions). In one case, death was due to a contemporaneous bladder carcinoma. The complications of cyclosporin treatment are briefly discussed.
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Amongst 40 patients undergoing cardiac transplantation between 1981 and 1984 and treated with cyclosporin A, 23 had hypertension. Fifteen of these patients, aged 39 years (16-57 years), without cardiac failure, treated with 8 +/- 3 mg kg-1 d-1 of cyclosporin A and 0.27 +/- 0.1 mg kg-1 d-1 of prednisolone were studied on average 288 days after transplantation (63-788 days). Blood pressure in the out-patients department of these 15 patients was 164 +/- 14/112 +/- 13 mmHg, in the absence of any antihypertensive treatment for more than 15 days, with a urinary sodium of 104 +/- 48 mEq/d and a urinary potassium of 55 +/- 13 mEq/d (mean +/- standard deviation). Two abnormalities accompany the raised blood pressure: a reduced creatinine clearance of 63 +/- 30 ml min-1 and an increased plasma volume of 445 +/- 686 ml (p less than 0.05) with reference to Hurley's norms (1975). By contrast, urinary excretion of VMA and metanephrines were invariably normal. Plasma renin activity (PRA) was normal in a lying position (1.02 +/- 0.42 ng ml-1 h-1) and after orthostatic stimulation (2.55 +/- 1.31 ng ml-1 h-1). Renin release was not stimulated by acute inhibition of converting enzyme (1.11 +/- 0.70 ng ml-1 h-1). Plasma aldosterone (110 +/- 52 pg ml-1), plasma angiotensinogen (924 +/- 213 ng/ml) and converting enzyme activity (30 +/- 6 mU ml-1) were normal. In these patients with a denervated heart, the orthostatic position increased heart rate from 85 +/- 11 to 93 +/- 12 beats/min.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Five cases of endocavitary recovery of embolised fragments of catheter are reported. In three cases, the Dotter apparatus was used with a percutaneous approach. In the other two cases, a Dormia catheter was introduced after surgical venous cut-down. The embolised catheters were all recovered successfully in periods ranging from 10 minutes to 1 hour. Local anaesthetic was used in one case. The interval between initial rupture and recovery of the catheter ranged from several hours to 2 months. No complications occurred during or after these manoeuvres. This is a simple, rapid, and economical method which may save the patient from thoracic surgery, and should always be kept in mind.
Since 1968, 320 patients with severe irreversible myocardial failure, have been referred to our department for transplantation; 78 p. 100 had dilated cardiomyopathies; 14 p. 100 had ischaemic heart disease and 8 p. 100 had valvular heart disease. One hundred and five patients had absolute contra-indications and were excluded (pulmonary hypertension, diabetes, gastro-duodenal ulcer, age, or other major organic disease). Of the remaining 215 patients, only 82 were transplanted because of the limited number of available donor hearts. The most commonly used technique was orthotopic grafting as described by Lower and Shumway; Barnard's method of heterotopic grafting was used in 1 case and a block heart and lung transplantation by Reitz and Shumway's method was performed in 3 cases. The main postoperative complications, apart from technical problems (7 deaths), were related to rejection (107 episodes, 27 deaths), infection (82 episodes, 13 deaths), atherosclerosis of the graft (4 cases, 2 deaths, 1 retransplantation) and malignant tumours (3 deaths). After transplantation, 82 p. 100 of patients were discharged after an average hospital stay of 2 months; 47 p. 100 survived the first year and lead almost normal socio-professional activities. Thirty patients are still alive, the longest postoperative survival being 9 years. Significant advances have been made in the last 3 years. Classical immuno-suppressor therapy (steroids, azathioprine, horse antilymphocytic serum) has given way to more effective antilymphocytic sera and more powerful immuno-suppressor drugs (cyclosporine A). This treatment has greatly changed the postoperative course of events. Rejection phenomena, though still as common, are much less serious and, above all, more insidious.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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Since 1972, 280 patients with severe irreversible myocardial damage have been referred to La Pitié Hospital, Paris, for heart transplantation; 95 were excluded on account of absolute contra-indications. Owing to the limited number of available transplants, only 66 of the 185 remaining patients were transplanted. Transplantation was orthotopic in all but 3 cases: 1 patient had heterotopic transplantation and 2 had heart-lung transplantation. The most common post-operative problems were graft rejection and complications of the immunosuppressive treatment; 82% of the transplanted patients were discharged 2 months on average after surgery; 47% overcame the first year problems and resumed an almost normal social and professional life; 21 are still alive, one of them after 9 years. During the last 2 years, technical refinements and the advent of more potent immunosuppressive agents (anti-lymphocyte serum from rabbits, cyclosporin A) and better diagnostic methods (repeated endomyocardial biopsies and immunological surveillance) have resulted in considerable improvement in the patients' outcome, with an actuarial survival rate of 77% at one year and 70% at two years. Since transplants are now better tolerated after the second year and since they possess remarkably good and durable functional properties, this reduction in early and late mortality, which used to be the main cause of failure, raises hopes of a marked increase in prolonged and satisfactory survival.