Heart transplantation in Asia.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The first clinical heart transplantation in Asia was performed by Wada in 1968. Due to cultural and religious problems, heart transplantation was rarely performed in Asia until 1987 and since then the number of heart transplantation has increased rapidly. This study was undertaken to investigate the results of heart transplantation in Asia. METHODS: Data was collected through the use of a questionnaire by mail. The questionnaire included information on the year when heart transplantation was started, the number of heart transplantations by year and country population, sex, age and diagnosis of recipients, causes of brain death of the donors, number of centers with an active heart transplantation programs, operative mortality and actuarial survival, brain death and organ transplant legislation. RESULTS: From July 17, 1987 to December 1996, 380 patients received heart transplantation in Asia. Up to 1996, Taiwan had performed 178 cases of heart transplantation. Thailand also started in 1987 and had 95 cases. South Korea started in 1992 and had 65 cases. Singapore and India each had 12 cases. Hong Kong 8 cases, China 7 cases, and the Philippines 3 cases, all started in the early 1990s. The recipient ages ranged from 1 to 70 years with a male to female ratio of 3 to 1. The one-month operative mortality rate ranged from 0 to 25% with an average of 7.4%. The one-year survival rate ranged from 0 to 84% with an average of 78.8%. The 5-year survival rate ranged from 30 to 74.1% with an average of 67. 5%. CONCLUSION: Heart transplantation was well-established in most Asian countries, and the number was increasing. The result and survival rate of heart transplantation in Asia were comparable with that of the world series.