• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.39 no.9 s.266
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• pp.714-717
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• 2006

Heart and kidney transplantation has made great progress in the modern era. Coupled with the growing successes in individual solid organ transplantation, there has also been an increase in the number of multiple organ transplants, such as heart-kidney transplantation. This trend has been in part due to a better understanding of immunobiology, advances in surgical technique and postoperative care, and an often-common pathologic association between dual-organ failure. This pathologic course is representative for end-stage heart failure leading to secondary renal dysfunction or failure, or for end-stage renal failure as a cause for (uremic) cardiomyopathy. However, refractory cardiac failure has long been considered a contraindication to kidney transplantation. Additionally, cardiac transplantation has been denied for patients with end-stage renal disease. Over recent years, combined heart-kidney transplantation has been offered to select patients who were once denied transplantation. We report the first experience of combined heart-kidney transplantation with one year follow-up results.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.537-539
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• 1997

An orthotopic cardiac transplantation was successfully performed in a 40 year-old Jehovah's witness without use of any blood product. Preoperatively, the patient had been on coumadin to prevent left atrial thrombi and the INR(Internation Normalized Ratio)of prothrombin titre was 2.4. During the operation, cell saver was used for shed blood and aprotinin was admini tered intravenously for platelet function. Total postoperative drainage was 860cc and the lowest hemoglobin was 12.2 gmldl. Postoperative course was complicated by central nervous system infection by wisteria monocytogenes and two episodes of rejection, both of which were effectively treated. The patient is on his 5th postoperative month and doing well.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.358-362
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• 2001

Brain dead (BD) patients remain the largest source of solid organs for transplantation. BD has shown to decrease graft function and survival in rodent models. The aim of this study was to evaluate how brain death affects graft viability in the donor and kidney tolerance to cold preservation as assessed by survival in a canine transplantation. 13 Beagle dogs were used for the study. Brain death was induced by the sudden inflation of a subdural balloon catheter with continuous monitoring of arterial blood pressure and eletroencephalographic activity (n=3). Sixteen hours after conformation of brain death, kidney graft were retrieved (n=6). Non-BD donors served as controls (n=4). All kidneys were flushed with University of Wisconsin (UW) solution and preserved for 24 hours at 4$^{\circ}C$ before transplantation. Recipient survival rates, serum creatinine level were analyzed. Brain death induced the well-known Cushing reaction with a severe increase in blood pressure and tachycardia. Thereafter, cardiac function returned progressively to baseline within 8 hours and remained stable until the end of the experiment. All of dogs in both group transplanted were survived until 7 days (100%), and the kidneys showed functional early rejection at 8.3$\pm$0.5 days and 8.5$\pm$0.5 days after transplantation, in BD and allograft group, respectively. BD kidneys were functionally similar to control kidneys for 7 days after transplantated. Brain death has no deleterious effect on preservation injury and survival of dog kidney transplantation, although it induces changes in hemodynamic parameters. This study reveals that kidneys from BD donors do not exhibit more ischemia reperfusion injury, and support good early function and survival.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.46 no.11
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• pp.688-699
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• 2023

We set up this study to understand the underlying mechanisms of reduced ceramides on immune cells in acute rejection (AR). The concentrations of ceramides and sphingomyelins were measured in the sera from hepatic transplant patients, skin graft mice and hepatocyte transplant mice by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Serum concentrations of C24 ceramide, C24:1 ceramide, C16:0 sphingomyelin, and C18:1 sphingomyelin were lower in liver transplantation (LT) recipients with than without AR. Comparisons with the results of LT patients with infection and cardiac transplant patients with cardiac allograft vasculopathy in humans and in mouse skin graft and hepatocyte transplant models suggested that the reduced C24 and C24:1 ceramides were specifically involved in AR. A ceramide synthase inhibitor, fumonisin B₁ exacerbated allogeneic immune responses in vitro and in vivo, and reduced tolerogenic dendritic cells (tDCs), while increased P3-like plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) in the draining lymph nodes from allogeneic skin graft mice. The results of mixed lymphocyte reactions with ceranib-2, an inhibitor of ceramidase, and C24 ceramide also support that increasing ceramide concentrations could benefit transplant recipients with AR. The results suggest increasing ceramides as novel therapeutic target for AR, where reduced ceramides were associated with the changes in DC subsets, in particular tDCs.

• Archives of Reconstructive Microsurgery
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.89-92
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• 2014

An 8-year-old girl diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy and Russell-Silver syndrome was admitted to our pediatric intensive care unit due to low cardiac output and multiple-organ dysfunction. The patient was placed on the heart transplant waiting list and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was performed as a bridge to transplantation. After 17 days, heart transplantation was performed. The donor was a 46-year-old female (weight, 50 kg; height, 150 cm). The donor:recipient weight ratio was 3.37:1. Because the dimension and volume of the recipient's thoracic cage were insufficient, the sternum could not be closed. Nine days after transplantation, the patient underwent delayed sternal closure. To obtain adequate space, we left the sternum 4.5 cm apart from each margin using four transverse titanium plates. A transverse rectus abdominis musculocutaneous flap was chosen to cover the wound. Due to the shortage of donors, a size-mismatched pediatric heart transplantation is sometimes unavoidable. Closure of the opened sternum of a transplant recipient can be challenging. Sternal reconstruction after an extremely oversized heart transplantation with transverse titanium plate fixation and a musculocutaneous flap can effectively achieve sternal closure and stability.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.395-406
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• 2013

Purpose: This study was aimed to investigate the relationship between the level of stress and the quality of life among the adult recipients of living donor liver transplantation. Methods: Participants were 213 outpatients who received living donor liver transplantation at least 3 months prior to this study. Stress was measured using a modified version of the Kidney Transplant Recipient Stressor Scale (KTRSS), and the quality of life was measured using SF-36 version 2. Results: The mean of scaled stress level and quality of life of liver transplant recipients were $2.44{\pm}0.13$, $69.28{\pm}18.25$, respectively. There was an inverse correlation between those two parameters. Therefore lower stress could improve quality of life. Conclusion: For the liver transplantation recipients, improving the quality of life is to be the ultimate goal of health-related mediation. Liver transplantation recipients would need to cultivate self-care ability to manage stress, and improving their quality of life.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.55-58
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• 2015

Although heart transplantation is a final therapeutic option in pediatric patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCMP), the shortage of pediatric heart donors is a major obstacle. In adults with DCMP characterized by cardiac dyssynchrony, cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is known to be an effective treatment option. However, there is a lack of evidence on the effectiveness of CRT in infants with DCMP. Several studies have reported improvement in hemodynamics and cardiac performance following CRT in infants with DCMP. Here, we report CRT in an infant with DCMP during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation with 5 months of follow-up.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.426-432
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• 2013

Background: Heart transplantation has become a widely accepted surgical option for end-stage heart failure in Korea since its first success in 1992. We reviewed early postoperative complications and mortality in 239 patients who underwent heart transplantation using bicaval technique in Asan Medical Center. Methods: Between January 1999 and December 2011, a total of 247 patients aged over 17 received heart transplantation using bicaval technique in Asan Medical Center. After excluding four patients with concomitant kidney transplantation and four with heart-lung transplantation, 239 patients were enrolled in this study. We evaluated their early postoperative complications and mortality. Postoperative complications included primary graft failure, cerebrovascular accident, mediastinal bleeding, renal failure, low cardiac output syndrome requiring intra-aortic balloon pump or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation insertion, pericardial effusion, and inguinal lymphocele. Follow-up was 100% complete with a mean follow-up duration of $58.4{\pm}43.6$ months. Results: Early death occurred in three patients (1.3%). The most common complications were pericardial effusion (61.5%) followed by arrhythmia (41.8%) and mediastinal bleeding (8.4%). Among the patients complicated with pericardial effusion, only 13 (5.4%) required window operation. The incidence of other significant complications was less than 5%: stroke (1.3%), low cardiac output syndrome (2.5%), renal failure requiring renal replacement (3.8%), sternal wound infection (2.0%), and inguinal lymphocele (4.6%). Most of complications did not result in the extended length of hospital stay except mediastinal bleeding (p=0.034). Conclusion: Heart transplantation is a widely accepted option of surgical treatment for end-stage heart failure with good early outcomes and relatively low catastrophic complications.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.42-45
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• 2016

Thrombosis at the left ventricular outflow tract occurs without any detectable heart disease or predisposing factors only extremely rarely. A 48-year-old male visited Konkuk University Medical Center with loss of consciousness one month prior to presentation. Before he visited our hospital, he had been diagnosed with a cardiac tumor, which was located between the left atrium and posterior aortic root, and which was adjacent to both the aortic and mitral valves. Cardiac transplantation was recommended at the other hospital because of the high risk of cardiac dysfunction induced by both aortic and mitral valvular dysfunction after surgical resection. Based on preoperative transthoracic echocardiography, cardiac computed tomography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, and intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography, we considered it to be a benign tumor. Complete resection was achieved and the pathology confirmed organizing thrombus. We report a case of organizing thrombus mimicking a cardiac tumor, which was located at the mitral-aortic intervalvular fibrosa of the left ventricular outflow tract without any heart disease.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.391-401
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• 2013

Mechanical circulatory support (MCS) in the pediatric heart failure population has a limited history especially for infants, and neonates. It has been increasingly recognized that there is a rapidly expanding population of children diagnosed and living with heart failure. This expanding population has resulted in increasing numbers of children with medically resistant end-stage heart failure. The traditional therapy for these children has been heart transplantation. However, children with heart failure unlike adults do not have symptoms until they present with end-stage heart failure and therefore, cannot safely wait for transplantation. Many of these children were bridged to heart transplantation utilizing extracorporeal membranous oxygenation as a bridge to transplant which has yielded poor results. As such, industry, clinicians, and the government have refocused interest in developing increasing numbers of MCS options for children living with heart failure as a bridge to transplantation and as a chronic therapy. In this review, we discuss MCS options for short and long-term support that are currently available for infants and children with end-stage heart failure.