Cardiac Transplantation: A Review

Cardiac transplantation is now an accepted treatment for end-stage cardiac disease. To ameliorate the deconditioning that results from the preoperative disease state and to counteract or lessen the severity of the sequelae of postoperative immunosuppression, physical therapists are active participants in the rehabilitation of cardiac transplant recipients. Thus involvement requires a level of knowledge and understanding of the surgical procedures, pharmacology, and postoperative management with which the therapist may have,heretofore, been unexposed. This article reviews the development of cardiac transplantation and presents an overview of the current state of the art, with emphasis preoperative considerations, surgical and immediate postoperative care, and the effects of complications on selected exercise-related responses.