Spanish Registry on Heart Transplantation. Twenty-two Official Report of the Working Group on Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation of the Spanish Society of Cardiology (1984-2010)

Objective. The purpose of this report is to present the results obtained with heart transplantation (HT) since this therapeutic modality first began to be used in Spain in May 1984. Materials and methods. A descriptive analysis was performed of all HT performed until December 31, 2010. Results. The total number of transplants is 6,291. The average clinical profile of the Spanish heart transplant patient in 2010 was that of a 53-year-old male who had been diagnosed with nonrevas-cularizable ischemic heart disease accompanied by severely depressed ventricular function and poor functional status. The implanted heart was typically from a 39-year-old donor who had died from brain hemorrhage. The average waiting list time was 99 days. Mean survival time has progressively increased over the years. Whereas for the overall series, the probability of survival at 1, 5, 10 and 15 years was 78, 67, 54 and 40%, respectively, over the past 5 years, the probability of survival at 1 and 5 years was 85 and 73%, respectively. The most frequent cause of death was acute graft failure (16.5%), followed by infection (15.9%), the combination of graft vascular disease and sudden death (13.7%), tumors (11.9%) and acute rejection (7.8%). Conclusions. The survival rates obtained in Spain with HT, especially in recent years, position heart transplant as the treatment of choice in irreversible heart failure patients without other established medical or surgical options.