HEART-TRANSPLANTATION IN AN 8-MONTH-OLD GIRL - 10TH ANNIVERSARY REPORT

In 1984, Dr. Denton A. Cooley led a surgical team that implanted a car diac allograft in an 8-month-old girl who had end-stage cardiac diseas e secondary to endocardial fibro-elastosis. AZ that time, experience w ith cardiac transplantation in infants was limited, and the long-term effects of the procedure were cause for concern. Ten years later our p atient is a healthy 4th-grade student who enjoys a remarkably normal l ife. She has grown and developed quite satisfactorily and her heart ha s enlarged in proportion to her overall somatic growth. Long-term immu nosuppression has produced no adverse effects and the child's medical problems have differed little from those of her peers. This landmark c ase has yielded preliminary answers to a number of important questions about cardiac transplantation in infants and has confirmed our origin al opinion that the procedure is well warranted in selected patients.