Partial heart transplant performed at HUG, a European first

In September, Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) performed Europe’s first partial heart transplant. This highly technical procedure was carried out on a 12-year-old patient with complex congenital heart disease.

This extremely complex surgical technique allows only the defective structures to be replaced. Only part of the donor’s heart is transplanted, allowing the child’s original heart to be preserved, according to the HUG.

The procedure involved transplanting the two valves that eject blood from the heart, the aortic valve and the pulmonary valve. The young patient is doing well and is continuing his recovery under medical supervision.

‘We had the opportunity to perform this operation, which was first performed in 2022 in the United States,’ said the project’s initiator, paediatric cardiologist Julie Wacker, on Thursday. Since then, around 30 operations have been performed, all on American soil.

The young patient, who has a ‘truncus arteriosus’ – a condition in which the two large vessels at the base of the heart are fused together – had already undergone three operations in the past in another canton. He had received biological valve prostheses and was able to lead a near-normal life. But in recent years, they began to malfunction, severely limiting his physical activities. His aortic valve in particular had become severely narrowed, a condition known as stenosis.

Dr Tornike Sologashvili, the paediatric cardiac surgeon who performed the partial transplant, pointed out that the success of this five-hour operation was the result of exemplary collaboration between multiple disciplines (surgeons, paediatric cardiologists, immunologists, anaesthetists, etc.). It opens up important prospects for many other future patients. ‘We have already discussed this with some of them,’ continued his colleague.

This European first was made possible thanks to the support of the HUG management, the Swisstransplant Foundation and the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH). It positions the HUG as a leader in the treatment of complex paediatric heart disease. ‘The protocol for a clinical trial is currently being finalised,’ announced Tornike Sologashvili.

Approximately one in 100 children is born with congenital heart disease. Between 30 and 40% of them require intervention (surgical or catheterisation). The HUG teams perform between five and six paediatric heart operations per week, receiving patients from the canton of Geneva, Switzerland and abroad. According to the HUG, the results are comparable to those of the best North American centres.

➡️ Source: HUG Press Release | 📸 ©HUG