Partial Heart Transplants Grow with Their Young Recipients
A heart valve transplant could save the life of a baby—or two
Children who are born with heart valve defects often undergo surgery to receive frozen valves from cadavers. Because thawed cadaver tissue is dead and doesn’t grow, however, the child must periodically have operations to get larger valves—which can lead to a poor prognosis. But in a new procedure known as a partial heart transplant, living valves and parts of blood vessels can be transplanted and grow along with a child.
In 2022 a newborn named Owen Monroe became the first infant to receive such a transplant from a brain-dead newborn donor. Owen was born with a rare condition called truncus arteriosus: he had only one blood vessel coming out of his heart and one corresponding “truncal” valve, instead of the usual two. This defect causes oxygen rich and oxygen-poor blood to mix, which in turn makes blood pool in the lungs and requires the heart to work harder. Plus, Owen’s existing truncal valve was too leaky for him to survive with. Doctors replaced the valve (and associated blood vessel) with part of a donor aorta and valve, as well as part of a pulmonary artery and valve.
Owen’s transplant was functioning well a year after the procedure, according to a new report in JAMA from Joseph W. Turek, chief of pediatric cardiac surgery at Duke Health, and his colleagues. “As he grows, the valves are proportionately growing. The valves function perfectly,”says Turek, who performed the surgery, adding that Owen is “meeting all of his milestones.” They also found that Owen had not suffered any immune rejection.
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Like any transplant recipient, Owen…
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