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PEDIATRIC HEART
TRANSPLANTATION
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Texas
Children's Hospital
Heart Transplant Program |
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In 1968, Dr. Denton Cooley in Houston, Texas, performed the first
pediatric heart transplant. The operation was technically successful
and the patient did well initially, however, rejection occurred
since there was no good method to prevent it. In the early 1980s,
cyclosporine – a powerful immunosuppressive agent – became available, and there was a surge in pediatric
heart transplantation.Texas
Children's, as part of Texas Heart Institute and St. Luke's
Episcopal Hospital, receives
United Network of
Organ Sharing (UNOS) certification for heart transplantation.
An 8-month-old girl, Sara, has a heart transplant at Texas
Children’s. Ten years later, in 1994, she became the
longest-surviving pediatric heart transplant recipient to date.
Dr. Jeffrey A. Towbin becomes director
of the cardiomyopathy and heart transplant service at Texas
Children's.
Texas Children's Heart Transplant Clinic opens; it is the first
pediatric heart transplant clinic in the nation.
Texas Children's opens the first cardiomyopathy clinic in the
nation.
In April, Texas Children's heart
transplant team performs the program's first heterotopic heart
transplantation.
Texas Children's heart transplant team
discovers a link between viral infections of the heart and
transplant rejection. Findings published in the Journal of Heart
Lung Transplant, Feb. 15, 1996.
Read the abstract
Texas Children's heart transplant team
links parvovirus B19 genome in children with with transplant
rejection. Findings published in Circulation, Nov. 18, 1997.
Read the article
Texas Children's publishes outcomes of
heart transplants in children wtih congenital heart disease
in the Texas Heart Institute Journal.
Read the article
Texas Children's part of
team that finds that viruses in the heart, particularly adenovirus,
causes bad outcomes in pediatric heart transplants due to rejection.
Findings published in New England Journal of Medicine, May
17, 2001.
Read the abstract
Texas Children's Heart Transplant
Program applies for and receives UNOS certification under its own
name.
Dr. Jeffrey A. Towbin becomes chief of cardiology at Texas
Children's.
Dr. William J. Dreyer becomes director of Texas Children's Heart
Transplant Program.
In March,
a 6-year-old Texas Children's Hospital
patient receives a MicroMed/DeBakey® child ventricular assist device
(VAD), marking the first time a pediatric patient received the
device. The new, scaled-down heart pump improves blood flow for
patients awaiting heart transplants.
Texas Children's surgeons perform a heart-kidney
transplant.
Texas Children's receives accreditation
for a heart-lung transplant program.
By the end of 2004, Texas Children's Heart Transplant program has
performed 155 heart transplants, making it one of the largest in the
world.
In a first for the program, the heart
transplant team performs a child's third heart transplant.
On Sept. 27, Texas Children's surgeons implant a
Berlin Heart in 3-month-old
Brady, making him one of the smallest pediatric
patients in the country to receive the device.
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