Pediatric heart transplant
A rare look into a pediatric heart transplant procedure. The recipient in this case is a 13 month-old patient with congenital heart disease. Congenital malformations are still the most common indication for infant heart transplantation (most common indication is Cardiomyopathy). Infants with serious congenital heart disease generally present in the newborn period with varying degrees of cyanosis, tachypnea, tachycardia, dysrhythmias, poor perfusion, feeding intolerance, and other symptoms of heart failure. An increasing number of congenital lesions are diagnosable by means of fetal ultrasonography. Survival of 20 years after transplantation has been achieved. Most programs now report that more than 70% of their recipients survive at least 5 years. The goal of pediatric heart transplantation is to provide as much of a normal life span for these children as possible.
