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Partial heart transplantation: a new option for paediatric heart valve replacement

Nature Reviews Cardiology volume 21, pages 277–278 (2024)Cite this article

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Heart valve replacement in newborn babies remains an unsolved problem because currently used heart valve implants do not grow. This lack of implant growth mandates serial re-operations until adult-size valve implants can be fitted. Partial heart transplantation is a new approach to solve this problem by transplanting only the part of the heart that contains the necessary valve.

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Acknowledgements

T.K.R.’s research on partial heart transplantation is supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grant R41 HL169059, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the Brett Boyer Foundation, the Saving tiny Heart Society, the Emerson Rose Heart Foundation, philanthropy from senator P. Campbell and the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Little Rock, AR, USA

    Taufiek K. Rajab & Andrew D. Vogel

  2. Division of Research, Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine, Dothan, AL, USA

    Andrew D. Vogel

  3. Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Joseph W. Turek

Authors
  1. Taufiek K. Rajab
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  2. Andrew D. Vogel
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  3. Joseph W. Turek
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Correspondence to Taufiek K. Rajab.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Rajab, T.K., Vogel, A.D. & Turek, J.W. Partial heart transplantation: a new option for paediatric heart valve replacement. Nat Rev Cardiol 21, 277–278 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-024-00991-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-024-00991-6

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