Cardiac surgery late after heart transplantation: A safe and effective treatment option

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtcvs.2010.02.033 Byline: Heidi Goerler, Andre Simon, Gregor Warnecke, Anna L. Meyer, Christian Kuehn, Axel Haverich, Martin Strueber Abbreviations: CABG, coronary artery bypass grafting; CAV, cardiac allograft vasculopathy; HTX, heart transplantation; MIDCAB, minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass grafting; OPCAB, off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting; TR, tricuspid regurgitation Abstract: Owing to the improved long-term outcome after cardiac transplantation, cardiac allograft vasculopathy or valvular disease is developing late after heart transplantation in a growing number of patients. In this study, we evaluated our results of nonretransplant cardiac surgery in these patients and compared them with those after retransplantation. Author Affiliation: Division of Cardiothoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany Article History: Received 6 October 2009; Revised 1 February 2010; Accepted 14 February 2010 Article Note: (footnote) Disclosures: None.