Outcomes of Heart Transplantation in Adult Congenital Heart Disease With Prior Intracardiac Repair.

BACKGROUND: The number of patients with adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) who require orthotopic heart transplantation has increased rapidly in the past 2 decades. This study examined heart transplant outcomes of patients with ACHD who had previous cardiac surgery by using data from the United Network for Organ Sharing database.

METHODS: Between January 2008 and March 2019, patients with ACHD who underwent previous cardiac surgery and subsequent heart transplantation were identified from the United Network for Organ Sharing database. As a control group, adult patients without congenital heart disease who had previous sternotomy and subsequent heart transplantation were extracted from the database. Propensity score matching was then used to compare outcomes between the 2 groups.

RESULTS: There were 793 patients in the ACHD group and 8400 patients in the control group. Among well-matched groups of 486 patients each, 30-day mortality (8.2% vs 3.9%; P = .004) and perioperative need for dialysis (22.7% vs 13.3%; P < .001) were significantly higher in the ACHD group compared with the control group. However, there was no difference in 10-year survival between the groups (ACHD 66.0% vs control 64.1%; log-rank P = .353).

CONCLUSIONS: Compared with well-matched patients without ACHD but with previous sternotomy, patients with ACHD and previous intracardiac repair had a higher operative risk but similar 10-year survival.