• Danielle M Mullis, Alyssa Garrison, Elbert Heng, Yuanjia Zhu, Stefan Elde, Riya Nilkant, Jack Boyd, William Hiesinger, Anson Lee, Yasuhiro Shudo, Amy Gallo, C Andrew Bonham, WooY JosephYJDepartment of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Stanford University; Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University., and John W MacArthur.
• Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Stanford University.
• J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. 2024 Aug 24.

ObjectiveCombined heart-liver transplantation (CHLT) is a definitive therapy reserved for patients with concomitant heart failure and advanced liver disease. A limited number of centers perform CHLT, and even fewer use the en bloc implantation technique. This study 1) reviews clinical outcomes and immunoprotective effects following CHLT, and 2) describes our institution's experience of over two decades using the en bloc technique.MethodsAll patients who underwent CHLT at our institution between January 2003 and July 2023 were identified. Recipient and donor characteristics, operative details, and clinical outcomes were assessed. Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed to evaluate survival following CHLT.ResultsA total of 20 patients underwent CHLT using the en bloc technique at our institution between January 2003 and July 2023. At a median follow-up of 3.8 years for patients who survived the perioperative period (n=18), estimated survival at 1- and 5-years was 94% and 75%, respectively. There was 100% freedom from acute moderate rejection, acute severe rejection, and chronic rejection in all patients. No patients required re-transplantation due to rejection.ConclusionsCHLT is a definitive therapy reserved for patients with multi-organ dysfunction. At our institution, the en bloc technique is the preferred operative approach, as it minimizes cardiac insult, requires fewer anastomoses, minimizes cold ischemia time, and allows for rapid correction of coagulopathy. Overall survival for this cohort is excellent. Episodes of acute rejection were rarely observed, providing further support that the liver may serve an immunoprotective role in multi-organ transplantation.Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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