Cardiac Transplantation in Infants

For children born with inoperable congenital heart disease or advanced cardiomyopathy, cardiac transplantation is the only therapeutic option. Each year in the United States, approximately 400 heart-transplantation procedures are performed in children and adolescents. In about two thirds, the indication is complex congenital heart disease, and in the remainder it is cardiomyopathy. During the past decade, the procedure has proved lifesaving for thousands of children.Of the 400 pediatric heart transplantations performed annually, about 100 are in infants under the age of 1 year. The 15-year survival rate among these infants is greater than 50%, increasing to 80% among those . . .