Immunosuppression and Long-Term Survival after Heart Transplantation

Introduction

Long-term outcome of patients after heart transplantation (HTx) is more dependent on benefits and side effects of immunosuppression therapy than on complications related to surgery. Moreover, drug-drug interactions of immunosuppressive agents used in different immunosuppressive regimens can impact patients' outcome. We review data on this topic and present our experience with different immunosuppression regimens obtained during more than 22 years in over 1 600 patients undergoing HTx in the German Heart Institute, Berlin.

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