Introduction and objectives: The present article reports the characteristics and results of heart transplantation in Spain since this therapeutic modality was first used in May 1984.
Methods: We summarize the main features of recipients, donors, and surgical procedures, as well as the results of all heart transplantations performed in Spain until December 31, 2012.
Results: A total of 247 heart transplantations were performed in 2012. The whole series consisted of 6775 procedures. Recent years have seen a progressive worsening in the clinical characteristics of recipients (34% aged over 60 years, 22% with severe kidney failure, 17% with insulin-dependent diabetes, 29% with previous heart surgery, 16% under mechanical ventilation) and donors (38% aged over 45 years, 26% with recipient: donor weight mismatch>20%), and in surgical conditions (29% of procedures at >4 h ischemia and 36% as emergency transplantations). The probability of survival at 1, 5, 10, and 15 years of follow-up was 78%, 67%, 53%, and 38%, respectively. These results have remained stable since 1995.
Conclusions: In recent years, the number of heart transplantations/year in Spain has remained stable at around 250. Despite the worsening of recipient and donor clinical characteristics and of time-to-surgery, the results in terms of mortality have remained stable and compare favorably with those of other countries.
Keywords: Heart transplantation; RETC; Registro; Registry; Spanish Heart Transplantation Registry; Supervivencia; Survival; Trasplante cardiaco.
Copyright © 2013 Sociedad Española de Cardiología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.