Fourth time cardiac retransplantation.

Beginning at age 11 years, our patient has had four heart transplants. Now, 26 years later at age 37, he is fully active. This case is presented to document a unique experience and to consider the difficult decision-making process and ethical issues of multiple cardiac retransplantation.

Elective cardiac retransplantation: a viable option that can be repeated.

Objective: Our hypothesis is that cardiac retransplantation is a viable option for selected recipients. Furthermore, in some patients multiple retransplantations are reasonable.

Methods: We studied 23 patients who had all received an elective second, third, or fourth cardiac transplant over a 25-year period.

Twenty-five-year survival after heart-lung transplantation: a milestone.

Limited information about long-term survivors of heart-lung transplant recipients exists. We report a 57-year-old man who has now survived 25 years after a heart-lung transplant. Initial induction and maintenance immunotherapy was rabbit anti-thymocyte globulin, cyclosporine, azathioprine, and methylprednisolone.

Bridge to recovery with a thoratec biventricular assist device for postpartum cardiomyopathy.

A 25-year-old African-American woman developed shortness of breath 7 days after a spontaneous vaginal delivery. She was found by echocardiogram to have a left ventricular ejection fraction of 10% and was diagnosed with postpartum cardiomyopathy. Despite medical therapy including diuretics, an ace inhibitor, and a beta blocker, over the next 5 months, the patient had more than 12 hospital admissions for congestive heart failure.