The management of cholelithiasis with gallstone pancreatitis in the heart transplant candidate is a difficult problem. Biliary tract surgery in the heart transplant candidate presents an additional set of clinical risks in view of extensive heart disease. We report the cases of three patients with symptomatic cholelithiasis with gallstone pancreatitis who were successfully operated on while awaiting cardiac allografts. Each patient was preoperatively prepared with (1) a lumbar epidural catheter for postoperative pain control with epidural opioids, (2) a balloon-tipped (Swan-Ganz) catheter and arterial line for perioperative monitoring, and (3) an intraaortic balloon pump for circulatory support with full heparinization after epidural catheter placement. In addition, preoperative optimization of cardiovascular function with pharmacologic agents was carefully achieved for 6 to 12 hours before surgery. All three patients had stable intraoperative courses, with less than a 300 ml blood loss. Their postoperative outcomes were without surgical complication. We think that biliary tract surgery may be safely accomplished in the heart transplant candidate with careful, appropriate preparation and meticulous surgical technique. We also present our management algorithm for heart transplant patients with cholelithiasis before and after operation.
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Neth Heart J
January 2025
Department of Cardiology, Thorax Centre, Cardiovascular Institute, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Background: Cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) is associated with poor prognosis, making early diagnosis and treatment important. This study evaluated the results of a diagnostic approach in patients with known sarcoidosis and suspected cardiac involvement in a tertiary centre and their long-term outcomes.
Methods: We included 180 patients with sarcoidosis and a clinical suspicion of CS.
Xenotransplantation
January 2025
Division of Cardiac Surgery, Department of Surgery, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Introduction: There is no standard protocol for management of organ preservation for orthotopic, life-sustaining cardiac xenotransplantation, particularly for hearts from pediatric sized donors. Standard techniques and solutions successful in human allotransplantation are not viable. We theorized that a solution commonly used in reparative cardiac surgery in human children would suffice by exploiting the advantages inherent to xenotransplantation, namely the ability to reduce organ ischemic times by co-locating the donor and recipient.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransplantation
January 2025
Division of Transplant Surgery, Department of Surgery, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, IL.
Circulation
January 2025
Division of Cardiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Department of Pediatrics (L.W., M.J.O., H.A., J.E., K.Y.L., C.W.-W., J.R., J.B.E.), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Background: The United Network of Organ Sharing made changes to the priority for allocation of hearts for transplantation (HT) in 2016 for pediatric patients and 2018 for adult patients. Although recent work has evaluated the impact of the revised allocation systems on mechanical circulatory support practices and waitlist outcomes, there are limited data that focus more specifically on the impact of the allocation changes on patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) or cardiomyopathy and how these relationships might differ in pediatric and adult patients.
Methods: The United Network of Organ Sharing database was queried for pediatric (<18 years of age) and adult (18-50 years of age) patients with a CHD or cardiomyopathy diagnosis listed for HT.
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