The young patient is doing well and is continuing his convalescence under medical supervision.
Keystone / Martial Trezzini
Last September, the Geneva University Hospitals performed the first partial heart transplant in Europe. This highly technical operation was performed on a 12-year-old patient suffering from complex congenital heart disease.
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This highly complex surgical technique enables only the failing structures of the heart to be replaced. Only part of the donor heart is transplanted, enabling the child’s original heart to be preserved, the hospital group said at a press conference on Thursday.
The operation involved transplanting the two valves that ensure blood is ejected from the heart, the aortic valve, and the pulmonary valve. The young patient is doing well and is continuing his convalescence under medical supervision.
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Since the first partial heart transplant in 2022 at Duke University in the United States, only around 30 such procedures have been performed worldwide, and so far exclusively in the US.
A partial heart transplant reduces the risk of the body rejecting the organ. In addition, unlike conventional artificial prostheses, the transplanted living valves can grow with the child, and thus help to avoid further operations, the hospital explained.
+ Why the Swiss are donating more organs for transplant
Translated from French with DeepL/gw
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