Cardiac transplantation at Stanford
Copeland, J.G.; Stinson, E.B.; Griepp, R.B.; Shumway, N.E.
Acta Chirurgica Belgica 76(3): 387-392
1977
ISSN/ISBN: 0001-5458 PMID: 331818 Document Number: 113409
Increasing survival of cardiac allograft recipients has been noted with each year of the Stanford cardiac transplantation program. Current 1 year survival is 67%, compared with 22% 1 year survival in the first year of our program. Five factors are felt to be important in improving survival: 1 degree stringent recipient selection criteria, 2 degrees routine use of serial endomyocardial biopsies for the diagnosis of acute graft rejection, 3 degrees administration of rabbit antithymocyte globulin for the treatment of rejection, 4 degrees aggressive diagnosis and treatment of infectious complications, and 5 degrees reduction of the incidence of accelerated graft arteriosclerosis by appropriate prophylaxis.