Worldwide thoracic organ transplantation: a report from the UNOS/ISHLT International Registry for thoracic organ transplantation.

1. The number of heart transplant operations performed in the United States has decreased by 16 procedures between 1995 (2,360) and 1996 (2,344). Following a period of rapid growth from 1990 (203) through 1995 (871), there was a decrease of 71 lung transplant procedures between 1995 (871) and 1996 (800). 2. The most frequently reported indication for heart transplantation in the US was coronary artery disease (44.88%). For other thoracic transplants, the most frequently reported indications included cystic fibrosis (31.85%) for double lung, emphysema/COPD (55.88%) for single lung and congenital heart disease (48.72%) for heart-lung transplants. The most frequently reported diagnoses for thoracic transplantation outside the US included cardiomyopathy (47.4%) for heart, cystic fibrosis (33.0%) for double lung, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (29.1%) for single lung and primary pulmonary hypertension (23.4%) for heart-lung transplants. 3. US heart transplant recipients were predominantly male (77.6%), older than age 50 (55.4%) and white (82.3%). In contrast, US lung transplant recipients were predominantly female (52.1%), aged 35-64 (73.5%) and white (89.5%). No significant variance from the US recipient demographic profile was noted for non-US recipients in this analysis. 4. The mean donor age for heart and lung transplants has risen slightly with an increase in mean age of 3.12 years for heart donors and 4.72 years for lung donors from 1987-1997. 5. The one-year survival rate for thoracic transplants performed in the US was 84.8% for heart, 70.1% for lung and 73.4% for heart-lung in 1996. Five-year survival for US thoracic transplants was 66.5% for heart and 43.2% for lung transplants performed in 1992. 6. There was little change in heart transplant survival based on transplant era (1987-89, 1990-92 and 1993-95). Lung recipients transplanted in the 1993-95 era showed a 16% increase in survival compared with those transplanted in the 1987-89 era at the 48-month time point. 7. The most important risk factor for US heart recipients at one month, one year, and conditionally at 5 years after transplantation was receipt of a previous heart transplant. Other substantial long-term risk factors included donor age and non-white, non-black recipient. 8. The most important risk factors for mortality in US lung recipients were the order of the transplant (primary or repeat) and the patient's medical condition at time of transplant. Diagnosis, recipient age and recipient race were highly influential risk factors for conditional 5-year mortality. 9. For heart and lung recipients, the major cause of hospitalization during the first 2 years after transplantation was infection.