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The current framework for care of pulmonary vascular disease in complex congenital heart disease (CHD) entails multidisciplinary medical management, congenital interventions to improve quality of life and reduce long-term complications, and eventually, consideration for heart-lung transplant (HLTx).
Eisenmenger syndrome (ES), the development of severe pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) accompanied by right to left shunting in adults with CHD, has traditionally been associated with a poor prognosis. In this Heart,1 paper the authors investigated the outcomes of (predominantly) HLTx in patients with ES. The overall survival rates were 84.1% and 69.7% at 1 year and 5 years, respectively. In a condition that was long considered incurable, they demonstrate that outcomes in the ES population with HLTx are comparable to contemporary outcomes for other diagnoses. The field of adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) lauds these efforts as they demonstrate the positive effects of medical advances on prolonged survival and the ability to longitudinally study rare disease outcomes with robust data. Importantly, this research suggests that with adequate planning and patient selection, the ACHD population is no longer relegated to medical management alone but can benefit from transplantation (figure 1).
Footnotes
Contributors ABB and YK are the sole contributors.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.
Linked Articles
- Congenital heart disease