Risk factors for graft failure associated with pulmonary hypertension after pediatric heart transplantation.

Postoperative pulmonary hypertension can be a major cause of early death after heart transplantation in children. To identify predictive risk factors of pulmonary hypertension after heart transplantation, we performed a retrospective analysis of our 194 infant and pediatric recipients who underwent heart transplantation between 1987 and 1992. Because the response of pulmonary vasculature may change during growth, the patients were divided into two groups: age less than 1 year in group I (n = 152) and 1 year or older in group C (n = 43). The following risk factors were evaluated: cardiomyopathy, congenital heart disease and hypoplastic left heart syndrome, pretransplant pulmonary hypertension, history of operation, oversized donor (donor/recipient weight ratio greater than 2), donor's history of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and prolonged graft ischemic time (graft ischemic time 360 minutes or longer). Though there was no significant difference between group I and group C in overall early mortality including early graft loss (19 of 152 versus 5 of 42), the mortality rate from pulmonary hypertension in group I was significantly lower than that in group C (2 of 152 versus 4 of 42; p < 0.05). The mortality rate from pulmonary hypertension in patients with congenital heart disease in group I was significantly lower than that in group C (0 of 44 versus 4 of 24; p < 0.05). In group I, there was no significant difference in the early mortality rate or the mortality rate from pulmonary hypertension from any factors studied. The mortality rate from pulmonary hypertension in association with prolonged graft ischemic time in group C was significantly higher than when no prolonged graft ischemic time was present in group C and with either prolonged graft ischemic time or no prolonged graft ischemic time in group I (4 of 16 versus 0 of 26, 0 of 37, and 2 of 115). In conclusion, older patients had a higher mortality rate from pulmonary hypertension after heart transplantation, especially in patients with congenital heart disease who received a graft preserved more than 6 hours. This study demonstrates another benefit of early heart transplantation in infancy, that is, prevention of death from pulmonary hypertension.