Introduction: Heart transplantation is the "gold standard" in the treatment of patients with end-stage heart failure who satisfy strict selection criteria.
Methods: We reviewed ten years' clinical experience (1996-2006) from 53 orthotopic transplants in our centre.
Results: Low perioperative (3.7%) and long-term (7.5%) mortality rates yielded a 95% survival rate in the first year, 92% at five years, and 70% at ten years--significantly better than the corresponding rates worldwide. In addition, excellent functional recovery was achieved in all transplant recipients.
Conclusions: The strict application of international criteria in the selection of both candidates and donors, together with uninterrupted, multidisciplinary follow up, have made it feasible to perform heart transplantation with excellent results, despite the curiously low number of potential recipients and the shortage of acceptable donor hearts.