Spanish registry on heart transplantation. 23rd official report of the Spanish Society of Cardiology Working Group on Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation (1984-2011).

Introduction And Objectives: The purpose of this article is to present the results obtained from heart transplantation since this therapeutic modality first began to be used in Spain in May 1984.

Methods: A descriptive analysis was performed of all heart transplantations performed until 31 December 2011.

Results: The total number of transplantations is 6528. The average clinical profile of the Spanish heart transplantation patient in 2011 was that of a 53-year-old male who had been diagnosed with nonrevascularizable ischemic heart disease accompanied by severely depressed ventricular function and poor functional status. The implanted heart was typically from a 38-year-old donor who had died from brain hemorrhage. The average waiting list time was 122 days. Mean survival time has progressively increased over the years. For the overall series, the probability of survival at 1, 5, 10, and 15 years was 77%, 66%, 53%, and 39%, respectively, whereas over the past 5 years the probability of survival at 1 and 5 years was 80% and 73%, respectively. The most frequent cause of death was acute graft failure (16%), followed by infection (15.6%), the combination of graft vascular disease and sudden death (14%), tumors (12.3%) and acute rejection (7.7%).

Conclusions: The survival rates obtained in Spain from heart transplantation, especially in recent years, place heart transplantation as the treatment of choice in irreversible heart failure patients without other established medical or surgical options.