Fresh Homografts Obtained Through a National Organ-sharing Programme for Repair of Congenital Heart Disease

Homografts have been used in congenital cardiac surgery for over 30 years. We utilized the resources of a national organsharing programme to obtain fresh homografts and report their use in correcting cardiac pathologies in 20 children between March 2001 and May 2003. In 16 patients, a valved conduit was used to form a connection between the pulmonary ventricle and the pulmonary artery. In three patients, a non-valved aortic conduit was used to form an extracardiac Fontan circulation and in one patient, non-valved pulmonary and aortic conduits were used to repair an infected aortic aneurysm. Three patients died following surgery. Survivors were followed up using echocardiography between 2 and 24 months post-surgery. Results demonstrate that, with the help of a national organ-sharing programme, the use of fresh homograft conduits is feasible in a paediatric patient population with reasonable waiting times.