The 500th heart transplant performed in Hungary

Semmelweis University reports that the 500^th heart transplant in Hungary was performed on a 24-year-old man a couple of weeks ago. He is recovering successfully. Read on to learn about the short history of heart transplants in Hungary.

The 500^th heart transplant in Hungary was performed on a 24-year-old man with a terminal cardiac failure at Semmelweis University. December 3^rd marks the day when the first heart transplant was performed in the world 50 years ago. This kind of operation was performed successfully in Hungary for the first time 25 years ago at Semmelweis University’s Heart and Vascular Centre.

The university writes on their webpage that the 500^th operation was a collaboration with the Gottsegen György National Cardiology Centre, where heart transplants are performed on children as well.

45 child heart transplants were performed in the last decade, reveals Dr Béla Merkely, vice-rector for clinical affairs at Semmelweis University. The remainder 455 operations were performed by the doctors of the university’s Heart and Vascular Centre.

Dr Merkely informs that an intensive care for transplant patients was established in the past years, Hungary has joined Eurotransplant, and an international-level artificial heart programme has been launched. Thanks to these steps taken and to the infrastructural developments that took place at the Centre, as many heart transplants were performed in the past five years, as many in the previous 20: in 2016 51, while this year 46 heart transplants took place.

The Heart and Vascular Centre is the second best in Europe regarding such establishments and is among the top ten worldwide.

A successful adult heart transplant program cannot become reality without adequate human resources: 16 cardiologists, 8 heart surgeons, 6 anaesthetists and over 60 assistants take part in the preparatory steps, in performing the surgery, and in the follow-up treatment. Thanks to this team, heart transplants became a successful branch of Hungarian medicine.

A quick recap of the history of heart transplants

December 3^rd, 1976: Christiaan Barnard performs the first successful heart transplant ever in Cape Town, South Africa

Barnard performing a human-to-human transplant with a team of doctors
photo: http://www.cts.uct.ac.za

January 3^rd, 1992: Professor Zoltán Szabó performs the first successful heart transplant in Hungary at the Semmelweis University’s Heart and Vascular Centre. 455 such surgeries were performed there ever since.

October 8^th, 2008: Professor Sr. István Hartyánszky performs the first successful child heart transplant in Hungary at the Gottsegen György National Cardiology Centre. 45 such surgeries were performed there since.

November 10^th, 2017: the 500^th successful heart transplant is performed in Hungary at the Semmelweis University’s Heart and Vascular centre on a 24-year-old patient diagnosed with terminal cardiac failure.

featured image: illustration

Source: semmelweis.hu