Sammanfattning
Since the Swedish government adopted brain death as the legal definition of death in 1988, a total of 822 heart transplantations have been performed in Sweden at two or three centers. Following another governmental decision, the number of transplant centres has now been reduced to two; Gothenburg and Lund. During the last years, a rising number of performed heart transplantations have been observed both in Lund and nationally, from earlier around 30 to more than 50 per year nationally in the last three years. The mean age for heart recipients in Lund is 45 +/- 17 years. About two thirds are male. The mean waiting time is less than 100 days and 33 % are on mechanical circulatory support (MCS) prior to transplantation. The prognosis is excellent with a 1-year recipient survival of 92 %, 5-year survival of 82 % and 10-year survival of 71 % (adults > 17 years, transplant era 1988 – 2011).