Pediatric Combined Heart-liver Transplantation: A Single-center Long-term Experience

Abstract

Background. Combined heart liver transplant (CHLT) continues to gain attention as a surgical treatment for patients with end-stage heart and liver disease but remains rare. We present our institutional longitudinal experience with up to 14 y of follow-up, focused on long-term outcomes in CHLT recipients. Methods. We conducted a single-institutional, retrospective review from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2023, including 7 patients ages 7–17 y who underwent CHLT. Results. Most patients were surgically palliated via Fontan procedure pretransplant (n = 6), and all had evidence of advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis before transplant. The 30-d mortality was 14.3% (n = 1, multiorgan failure). During the follow-up period, 1 patient developed acute heart rejection which required treatment and 2 developed acute liver rejection. In all cases, rejection was successfully treated. Two patients developed acute heart rejection which did not require treatment (grade 1R). No patients developed chronic or refractory rejection. No patients developed allograft coronary artery vasculopathy. Conclusions. CHLT remains a rarely performed treatment for pediatric patients with end-stage heart and liver disease, but our long-term data suggest that this treatment strategy should be considered more frequently.