Heart-Lung Transplantation

Fifteen years ago there was little hope for long-term survival for those patients with end stage cardiac and pulmonary disease. Although cardiac transplant programs were well established in many centers, this procedure could not help patients that had extensive primary or secondary pulmonary involvement. In 1981, however, after extensive laboratory work Reitz et al. performed the first successful heart-lung transplant procedure.1 Since that time over 550 procedures have been performed worldwide.