Heart transplantation

Heart failure remains a major global problem with approximately 6 million individuals suffering from heart failure in the United States alone. The surgical technique of heart transplantation, popularized by Dr. Norman Shumway, has led to its success and currently remains the best treatment options for patients with end-stage. However, with the continued limitation of donor organs and the rapid development of ventricular assist device technology, the number of patients bridged to transplant with mechanical circulatory support has increased significantly. This has created some new technical challenges for heart transplantation. Therefore, it is now important to be familiar with multiple new technical challenges associated with the surgical techniques of heart transplantation with an ultimate goal in reducing donor heart ischemic time, recipient cardiopulmonary bypass time and post-operative complications. In this review, we described our technique of heart transplantation including the timing of the operation, recipient cardiectomy and donor heart implantation.