Successful launch of cardiac transplantation in Japan

Cardiac transplantation has been established as a therapeutic strategy for patients with end-stage heart failure. In Japan, however, cardiac transplan tation has not been performed since the first case in 1968, and even now, a fter legislation for the approval of brain death was passed in 1997, it is still not performed regularly. Following long and steady efforts to enlight en Japanese society about the concept of brain death and the importance of organ transplantation, the first cardiac transplantation under the new legi slation was successfully performed at Osaka University Hospital on February 1999. The patient was 47-year-old male in the dilated phase of hypertrophi c cardiomyopathy who had been supported with an implantable left ventricula r assist device. This article briefly reviews the situation prior to the fi rst case of cardiac transplantation under the new legislation and discusses the current status of the therapy in Japan.