Heart transplantation. Four years' experience with conventional immunosuppression.

This article describes four years' experience with heart transplantation using conventional immunosuppression. Twenty of 32 patients are alive. The one-year survival rates were 75% (1979), 67% (1980), and 75% (1981). Actuarial survival rates for operative survivors were 70% at one year, 60% at two years, and 51% at three years. Patients in the 50- to 55-year age group have survived as well as younger recipients. Rejection resulted in six deaths, infection in three, donor heart failure in two, and multiple organ failure in one. There were 1.5 acute rejections per patient and one infection per patient in the first three posttransplant months. Postoperative hospital stay averaged 62 days and cost a total of $58,351.