This is a concise review of up-to-date concepts and techniques in the discipline of heart transplantation. It is a review and reference for practitioners managing patients with advanced heart disease, including patients with end-stage heart failure, mechanical circulatory support or transplant recipients. Heart failure is a major public health issue, with a prevalence of over 5.8 million in the USA, and over 23 million worldwide, and rising. The lifetime risk of developing heart failure is one in five. Heart failure carries substantial morbidity and mortality, with 5-year mortality that rival those of many cancers. As heart transplantation remains the best treatment option for patients with end stage heart failure, this primer will provide valuable information and management strategies for physicians caring for these patients. Also, due to continued shortage in donor organs, heart transplantation is a limited resource – which further underscores the importance of appropriately evaluating patients for transplant candidacy and managing their pre, peri- and post-transplant care for maximum benefit and best outcomes.
This truly comprehensive reference is devoted to every aspect of heart transplantation. It not only covers the surgical procedures for the donor and recipient, but also explores pre and post operative patient management, operative techniques and non-surgical cardiac management options. The 3 reasons you need this book are: (1) Extensive outline and bolded phrases will provide you with QUICK and EASY access to the information; (2) Over 700 illustrations will provide an additional visual aid to enhance your understanding of the text; and (3) Access to information on all the most currently used immunosuppressive drugs and other modalities with helpful tables
This work provides a one-of- a-kind volume that includes all aspects of heart transplantation from its historic beginning to its current day standards which now make the procedure a long-term treatment option for heart failure patients. The subjects covered include technical aspects of the procurement and implant procedures, as well as the medical nuances of pre-operative preparation and post-transplant immunosuppression management; the current day multi-disciplinary make up of the transplant team along with information on the keys to building and running a successful transplant program; regulatory standards and listing policies and the impact of the growing mechanical circulatory support technologies on the transplant field; and emerging technologies and future possibilities. All chapters are written by experts in the field and include the most up-to-date peer reviewed studies and clinical guidelines. This book gives an ever-changing reference that will become the text of choice for those beginning or continuing their transplant careers.
The dramatic race to transplant the first human heart spanned two years, three continents and five cities against a backdrop of searing tension, scientific brilliance, ethical controversy, racial strife and emotional turmoil. It culminated in a terrifying moment in the early hours of 3 December 1967 when, in a cramped operating theatre in a Cape Town hospital, Professor Chris Barnard stared into an empty cavity from which he had just removed a heart. He knew that he had only minutes left to make history and save the life of a 55-year-old man by filling the gaping hole in his chest with a heart which had just been beating inside a 25-year-old woman. Every Second Countsis the story of this gripping race to conquer the greatest of medical challenges. It also reveals the truth about the man at the centre of it all, whose turbulent life story was just as gripping. The kind of true story that would be dismissed as far-fetched if presented as fiction, it combines an utterly compelling portrait of cutting-edge science with raw human drama, and shows how the course of medicine itself was changed for ever.
School bullying is universally decried, bemoaned, and condemned. Newspapers, magazines, television, and movies all reflect the ugly truth ... bullying is not only on the rise, but becoming more dangerous every day. Whether it's a teenager committing suicide as a result of a Facebook posting or a group of schoolchildren taunting another autistic child and filming it for the "entertainment" of others, the longest-lasting, deepest-scarring impact of bullying is emotional, not physical. Failure to understand this has handicapped an already-insipid series of failed "solutions." Heart Transplant is aimed at actually *changing* the way we deal with perhaps the most critical issue for children and parents alike today. To accomplish this mission, an entirely new medium was created. Neither a graphic novel nor a self-help book, it uses elements of both to deconstruct bullying, and to offer both teens and their parents the true "facts of life." Nine-year-old Sean's only experience with parenting was the series of men his alcoholic mother made him call "Daddy." He knows he doesn't belong ... anywhere. And never will. He sees himself as others see him: Outsider. When Sean comes home from school one day, he opens the door to a pair of corpses — his latest "father's" attempt at dope-dealing ended badly. The police arrive, the bodies are bagged, and the "Welfare lady" is telling Sean how much he's going to love his new foster home when an older man suddenly crosses the threshold. He tells the social worker that he's the father of the dead man, so that makes him responsible for his "grandson." And he offers Sean a choice: come and live with him, or take his chances with foster care. Life with the man Sean comes to call "Pop" is Paradise compared to the past. A brilliant and hardworking student, Sean finally has someone to show his report card to ... and he listens to Pop harder than he ever did to a teacher. Still an Outsider, yes, but now there's one place on earth where he knows he's always welcome. And always safe. But puberty brings Sean into a new world; a world where he is bullied every day ... a world where his status as "Outsider" is confirmed in endlessly cruel ways. He never complains, but Pop quickly discovers the truth. When Sean protests that "It didn't hurt." his real father responds that he knows that's a lie ... because when his son is hurt, he hurts, too. This is Sean's first experience with empathy, and his first understanding of emotional abuse. His understanding of bullying comes later ... when Pop shows him not only its true roots, but its antidote. Pop gives his son what he needs most: A heart transplant. It is not until after Pop's death that Sean learns the special sacrifice his father had made to give him that transplant, and that final understanding is Sean's ultimate legacy. Timely and confrontational, HEART TRANSPLANT is the gripping story of young boy's transformation from bullied "outsider" to true manhood. The universality of this work is such that what Sean learns is communicated to bullied children and their parent(s) alike. It speaks with a truth that cannot be denied, but also with a response that can be replicated.
It is a great pleasure for me to contribute a brief introduction to this volume, to which so many of my colleagues at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town Medical School have contributed. Though considerable advances have been made in preventing or treating the complications of heart transplantation, even today a transplant pro gramme remains a major undertaking for a hospital team. The acquisition of a sufficient number of donor hearts, the maintenance of viability of those hearts, and the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic rejection and infection remain major challenges to those caring for patients undergoing this operation. A transplant programme draws into it medical, surgical, nursing and paramedical staff from all quarters of the hospital and medical school, and requires sustained interest and dedication if patients are to be brought successfully through the procedure. If relevant experimental research is also to be carried out at such a centre, which in my opinion is essential, then an even greater number of highly skilled and creative people is required. A few of the authors of this book have been involved with the Groote Schuur heart transplant programme since its inception in December 1967 with the operation on Louis Washkansky. I am sure that none of them (nor I) had any idea of the public interest this operation would attract.
Heart transplantation remains one of the major scientific achievements of twentieth century medicine. During the past four decades, it has evolved from an unproven experimental surgical technique to the most effective form of therapy for refractory end-stage heart disease. It has captured the public's imagination and expanded our understanding of fundamental immunologic mechanisms that are responsible for cellular and humorally-mediated immunity. Despite its successes, many clinical and scientific problems remain. One or more bouts of acute cellular or humoral (vascular) rejection will occur in over 75% of transplant recipients despite current immunosuppressive strategies. Further, rejection directly results in approximately 20% of post-transplant deaths and is believed to play a major role in the development of late allograft dysfunction and coronary vasculopathy. This book by international experts in the fields of transplantation medicine, immunobiology and cardiac imaging provides the reader with an up-to-date, consise summary of the latest developments in the diagnosis and treatment of acute cardiac rejection. It is axiomatic that a more complete understanding of the pathogenic processes involved in rejection will ultimately lead to its prevention. This volume will be useful to transplant cardiologists, cardiovascular surgeons, cardiac pathologists and transplant scientists who seek to prolong the lifespan and improve the quality of life of their transplant recipients.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks meets Get Out in this “startling…powerful” (Kirkus Reviews) investigation of racial inequality at the core of the heart transplant race. In 1968, Bruce Tucker, a black man, went into Virginia’s top research hospital with a head injury, only to have his heart taken out of his body and put into the chest of a white businessman. Now, in The Organ Thieves, Pulitzer Prize–nominated journalist Chip Jones exposes the horrifying inequality surrounding Tucker’s death and how he was used as a human guinea pig without his family’s permission or knowledge. The circumstances surrounding his death reflect the long legacy of mistreating African Americans that began more than a century before with cadaver harvesting and worse. It culminated in efforts to win the heart transplant race in the late 1960s. Featuring years of research and fresh reporting, along with a foreword from social justice activist Ben Jealous, “this powerful book weaves together a medical mystery, a legal drama, and a sweeping history, its characters confronting unprecedented issues of life and death under the shadows of centuries of racial injustice” (Edward L. Ayers, author of The Promise of the New South).
Up-to-date, authoritative and comprehensive, Heart Failure, 4th Edition, provides the clinically relevant information you need to effectively manage and treat patients with this complex cardiovascular problem. This fully revised companion to Braunwald's Heart Disease helps you make the most of new drug therapies such as angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitors (ARNIs), recently improved implantable devices, and innovative patient management strategies. Led by internationally recognized heart failure experts Dr. G. Michael Felker and Dr. Douglas Mann, this outstanding reference gives health care providers the knowledge to improve clinical outcomes in heart failure patients. - Focuses on a clinical approach to treating heart failure, resulting from a broad variety of cardiovascular problems. - Covers the most recent guidelines and protocols, including significant new updates to ACC, AHA, and HFSA guidelines. - Covers key topics such as biomarkers and precision medicine in heart failure and new data on angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitors (ARNIs). - Contains four new chapters: Natriuretic Peptides in Heart Failure; Amyloidosis as a Cause of Heart Failure; HIV and Heart Failure; and Neuromodulation in Heart Failure. - Covers the pathophysiological basis for the development and progression of heart failure. - Serves as a definitive resource to prepare for the ABIM's Heart Failure board exam. - 2016 British Medical Association Award: First Prize, Cardiology (3rd Edition).
