Immediate Post-operative Management After Heart Transplantation

Ultimately, the purpose of cardiac transplantation is to provide a means to high quality long-term survival in patients with end-stage heart disease. The immediate post-operative period is crucial in determining the probability of this outcome. Heart transplant clinicians should be familiar with and be comfortable treating multiple simultaneous medical and transplant-specific issues in patients that have often been critically ill prior to transplant. This chapter aims to provide an overview of the post-transplant hospitalization period, including perioperative management strategies, frequently encountered early morbidities, and short-term outcomes. Although induction and immunosuppression agents are discussed in depth in Chap. 9, their initiation, which is crucial in the perioperative period to prevent graft rejection, will also be covered briefly.