Role of cardiac replacement in the neonate.

Since January 1978, orthotopic heart transplantation has been investigated in the Surgical Research Laboratories of Loma Linda University. The encouraging results obtained and the release of cyclosporine for use in heart recipients stimulated our interest in heart transplantation in newborns with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Institutional approval of the investigational protocol for clinical trials of orthotopic cardiac transplantation in newborns was obtained for a first cross-species (baboon to human) heart transplant in a neonate. This report summarizes our experience in this area.