State of art in heart transplantation

Abstract

Heart transplantation (HTX) has become an accepted treatment for selected patients with end-stage heart failure. There are two transplant centres in the Czech Republic, Prague since 1984 and Brno since 1992, in which more than 1000 heart transplantations were performed. Pharmacotherapy after heart transplantation includes the problems of immunosuppression and interactions of immunosuppressant drugs and their adverse effects. The main task for future is to find better immunosuppression with less side effects, to replace invasive bioptic examination of rejection and to find alternatives to clasical transplantation: xenotransplantation, stem cell transplantation or development of new ventricle assisst devices.