The history of research on adult and paediatric heart transplantation

Abstract

Heart transplantation has been an unachievable goal since the dawn of humanity. Only by the courage of a few pioneers could this dream become reality. After the pioneering work of Demikhov, the team of Stanford and New York built up the animal experimentation that would enable the first steps in human transplantation. The name Christiaan Barnard will always be remembered for being the first to perform human transplantation: .as he stared upon a heartless human chest, at that moment, he was struck by reality for the first time of what he was about to perform. This breakthrough was quickly followed by rapid enthusiasm for this still experimental surgery in the United States. The poor results o..