Sammanfattning
Introduction: Despite modern pharmacological therapy, heart failure may progress to an end stage associated with a very high mortality. Therefore heart transplantation is still the best option for selected patients with severe end-stage heart failure, but shortage of donor organs limits the numbers of transplantations. Materials and methods: We studied the 145 patients who had a heart transplant at Skejby Hospital between 31 december 1992 and 1 February 2003. Results: The average annual mortality rate was 85%, and the five-year mortality rate was 78%. Thirty-two of the 145 donors (22%) were 50 years or older. In this subgroup of patients with an older donor, the mortality rate was not significantly different from the mortality rate in the rest of the patients (p=0.40, log rank test). The total mortality rate of patients on the waiting list was 18 of 178 patients (10%). Conclusion: The survival after heart transplantation at Aarhus University Hospital, Skejby, is of international standard. The use of older marginal donors did not reduce the survival rate significantly. The expansion of the donor pool may have contributed to the observed low mortality rate among the patiens on our waiting list.