Spanish Heart Transplantation Registry. 24th Official Report of the Spanish Society of Cardiology Working Group on Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation (1984-2012)

Abstract

Introduction and objectivesThe present article reports the characteristics and results of heart transplantation in Spain since this therapeutic modality was first used in May 1984. MethodsWe summarize the main features of recipients, donors, and surgical procedures, as well as the results of all heart transplantations performed in Spain until December 31, 2012. ResultsA total of 247 heart transplantations were performed in 2012. The whole series consisted of 6775 procedures. Recent years have seen a progressive worsening in the clinical characteristics of recipients (34% aged over 60 years, 22% with severe kidney failure, 17% with insulin-dependent diabetes, 29% with previous heart surgery, 16% under mechanical ventilation) and donors (38% aged over 45 years, 26% with recipient: donor weight mismatch>20%), and in surgical conditions (29% of procedures at >4 h ischemia and 36% as emergency transplantations). The probability of survival at 1, 5, 10, and 15 years of follow-up was 78%, 67%, 53%, and 38%, respectively. These results have remained stable since 1995. ConclusionsIn recent years, the number of heart transplantations/year in Spain has remained stable at around 250. Despite the worsening of recipient and donor clinical characteristics and of time-to-surgery, the results in terms of mortality have remained stable and compare favorably with those of other countries.