Heart transplantation: limitations and perspectives.

The intrinsic limitations of heart transplantation are the restricted availability of donated organs, patient selection, hospitalisation costs, and the limited capacity of cardiac surgery clinics. With a better understanding of organ transplantation and heart transplants in particular, both by the general public and the medical profession, improvements in the care of patients with terminal myocardial disorders seem to be possible with heart transplantation. The one year survival rate for heart transplants is 80%. The success of the treatment is determined by the hemodynamic capacity of the transplanted organ, security against rejection reactions, effects of cellular transplant reactions, and side effects of immunosuppression. Within defined limits heart transplantation is the best standardised method of treatment for terminal myocardial failure.