2024 marks 50 years of
pediatric heart transplants and 35 years of pediatric lung
transplants at Stanford Medicine
PALO
ALTO, Calif., July 11,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Stanford Medicine Children's
Health is celebrating 50 years of pediatric heart transplants and
more than 35 years of pediatric lung transplants. These milestones
have a special significance, as Stanford was the site of the first successful human
heart transplant in the United
States, performed by cardiothoracic surgeon Norman Shumway, MD, PhD, in 1968.
"Every time we perform a pediatric heart or lung transplant, we
are saving someone's life," said David
Rosenthal, MD, medical director of Thoracic Organ
Transplantation and director of the Pediatric Advanced Cardiac
Therapies (PACT) program at Stanford Children's Health. "As one of
the largest pediatric transplant programs in the country, it's
amazing to think about the decades of collaboration between
specialists around the institution and how we've been able to
contribute many advances to the field. These advances have allowed
us to take care of some of the smallest and most complex patients
and give them another chance at life."
In 1974, the first pediatric heart transplant at Stanford was performed for a teenager. Since then,
the Stanford heart transplant program
has completed more than 560 pediatric heart transplants—a higher
volume than at many pediatric heart centers in the United States and the highest volume in
the Western U.S. One of the more recent advances by the Stanford
Children's team includes the heart transplant size-matching
program. A Stanford Children's pediatric cardiologist pioneered the
use of 3-D imaging software to better match donor hearts with
children awaiting heart transplant to help expand the donor pool
and reduce wait times.
In 1988, Stanford physicians
performed the institution's first pediatric lung transplant. The
highly specialized transplant team has performed 98 pediatric lung
and combined heart-lung transplants to date, treating more lung
transplant patients than any other center on the West Coast. Most
recently, to address an evolving need for young patients with
severe pulmonary hypertension and advanced lung disease, Stanford
Children's created the Center for Advanced Lung Therapies, giving
children their best chance for survival while they wait for a lung
or combined heart-lung transplant, or being offered advanced
therapeutic treatments which can serve as a bridge to transplant.
Its team approach and integration within the greater Stanford
Medicine network gives patients access to novel therapies and
treatments.
"These milestones speak to our expertise, our long history of
research, innovations, and procedures conducted in partnership with
experts in the field," Dr. Rosenthal said. "Seeing our patients go
from critically ill to living fulfilling lives is something I find
gratifying and gives me a lot of optimism for the future of the
field."
Stanford Children's Pediatric Heart Transplant key
facts
- 1974: First pediatric heart transplant at Stanford is performed for a teenager.
- 1984: Two-year-old Elizabeth
Craze is the first small child to successfully receive a
heart transplant at Stanford. She is
one of the youngest heart transplant recipients on record and now
Stanford's oldest living heart
transplant survivor. Elizabeth has survived for 40 years with the
same heart.
- 2004: The Pediatric Advanced Cardiac Therapies (PACT) program
is established at Stanford Children's—the first combined pediatric
heart failure and heart transplant program in the U.S. Yearly, the
outpatient PACT clinic cares for more than 1,000 patients.
- 2004: A 5-month-old is the youngest child at the time to be
placed on a Berlin Heart pump, enabling him to survive 55 days
until a donor heart becomes available.
- 2010: Researchers find using an inexpensive blood test to be a
faster, less intrusive way to identify transplant recipients' organ
rejection before it impairs transplanted hearts.
- To date, the heart transplant team has performed more than 560
pediatric heart transplants and implanted more than 200 ventricular
assist devices (VAD), which help extend patients' lives until they
receive a donor heart. Key medical protocols to minimize stroke in
VAD patients and use adult devices in pediatric devices were
developed at Stanford.
Stanford Children's Pediatric Lung and Heart-Lung Transplant
key facts:
- 1988: Stanford surgeons perform the
hospital's first pediatric lung transplant.
- Stanford Children's is the only pediatric program in the
Western U.S. to consider lung and combined heart-lung
transplantation for patients from infancy to early adulthood, even
those who have developed respiratory failure months or years after
prior surgery for congenital heart lesions and who are at high risk
for future surgeries because of past, complex heart or lung
surgeries.
- Stanford Children's is the only center in California, Nevada, and Oregon to be designated a Therapeutic
Development Network Center by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
- Stanford Children's is part of the International Pediatric Lung
Transplant Collaborative and an ongoing participant in the
first-ever National Institutes of Health collaborative study on the
mechanisms of chronic allograft rejection.
- 2011: Surgeons perform the first pediatric lung-liver
transplant at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford.
- 2016: A 14-year-old is the first pediatric heart-lung
transplant patient in the Western U.S. to undergo a novel procedure
to receive a shunt that assists his lungs to reduce the workload on
his failing heart, acting as a bridge to transplant. This advanced
lung therapeutic intervention helps him survive to transplant.
- 2013–23: Stanford Children's completes 25 lung and heart-lung
transplants.
Media Contact
Katie
Chen
KatChen@stanfordchildrens.org
(650) 465-4872
About Stanford Medicine Children's Health
Stanford Medicine Children's Health, with Lucile Packard
Children's Hospital Stanford at its center, is the Bay Area's
largest health care system exclusively dedicated to children and
expectant mothers. Our network of care includes more than 65
locations across Northern
California and more than 85 locations in the U.S. Western
region. Along with Stanford Health Care and the Stanford School of
Medicine, we are part of Stanford Medicine, an ecosystem
harnessing the potential of biomedicine through collaborative
research, education, and clinical care to improve health outcomes
around the world. We are a nonprofit organization committed to
supporting the community through meaningful outreach programs and
services and providing necessary medical care to families,
regardless of their ability to pay. Discover more at
stanfordchildrens.org.
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SOURCE Stanford Medicine Children's Health and Lucile Packard
Children's Hospital Stanford