Heart Transplantation Survival and Sex-Related Differences

Abstract

Orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT) is the "gold standard" treatment for patients with end-stage heart failure, with approximately 5000 transplants performed each year worldwide. Heart transplantation survival rates have progressively improved at all time points, despite an increase in donor and recipient age and comorbidity and greater recipient urgency; according to the registry of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT), the median survival of patients posttransplantation is currently 12.2 years.Long-term survival is sub-optimal, and outcomes after OHT remain constrained by the development of acute rejection and cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV). Moreover, donor organs are in short supply, making optimal organ utilization an ongoing priority. For these reasons, substantial interest continues to exist in identifying factors portending increased survival and improved organ utilization.

Keywords: Allograft vasculopathy; Cardiac transplantation; Donor organ; Immunological difference; Microvasculopathy; Posttransplant mortality; Premenopausal female donor; Review; Sex mismatch; Transfusion history; United Network for Organ Sharing.