Paediatric heart transplantation in Australia comes of age: 21 years of experience in a national centre

Abstract

Background: Heart transplantation (HT) is established therapy for end-stage heart failure in children with cardiomyopathy or congenital heart disease. Aims: This review summarises experience at a national referral centre since the first local transplant. Methods: Medical records of children referred for HT between 1 April 1988 and 1 January 2010 were retrospectively reviewed. All patients listed for HT were included. Survival analysis was used to summarise wait-list time to death/transplant, and separately, time to death in HT patients. Results: One hundred and thirty-nine children were accepted on to the HT waiting list during the study (median age 7.7 (interquartile range (IQR) 2.5, 13.6) ..