HUP completes its 200th heart transplant operation

Begun in 1987, the transplant program has risen to a position of national prominence. After Barbara Mansfield came out of surgery, she had one, simple question for her doctors. "She wanted to know if she'd won a trip to Disneyworld," Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Cardiac Transplant Coordinator Sarah Fontana recalled. Although Mansfield's procedure was a milestone, she did not win a free vacation. But the 55-year old did get something even more important -- a new heart. And she is not the only one celebrating, as her surgery marked HUP's 200th heart transplant surgery. "I feel marvelous about that," Mansfield said, adding that she "just can't say enough good things about HUP." For the hospital, passing the 200-mark was just another step in its growing process. "We're a very busy cardiac transplant program," said Michael Acker, director of the Cardiac Transplant Patient Program and a Surgery professor. After performing 33 heart transplants in the 1996 calendar year, the HUP transplant program ranks in the "top 10 percent of all programs nationally," according to the Congested Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation Program's medical director, Evan Loh. Loh added that HUP's program is "very compatible with all national norms" in terms of quality, with a one-year survival rate of 82 percent. Since its creation in 1987, the heart transplant program has continually expanded. Ten years and 200 patients later, it is a key part of an integrated effort to treat patients needing a variety of transplant types. Acker explained that the department "likes to think of our heart transplant program? as being part of a larger cardiac failure program." This means that patients in need of cardiac care have access to a myriad of treatment options -- including an artificial heart program that keeps patients alive while they wait to reach the top of the transplant list. "It enables many of our patients to recover and rehabilitate to the point that they can then receive a heart transplant," Acker added. He also stressed that the department continues to explore new technology and treatment methods in order to better serve its patients. For example, Acker said that "one of the avenues that is on the horizon is xenotransplantation" -- the replacement of human organs with body parts from other species. And Loh stressed that "we will continue to offer the widest variety of therapeutic options for patients with advanced congested heart failure." He added that the program will look into "new medical therapies, experimental drug trials? and also the newest in immuno-suppressant therapy to improve short and long-term survival for patients." HUP's Multi-Organ Transplant Program has increased both the number of patients it treats and the number of services it offers, and now performs rare multiple transplants, such as a heart-liver replacement that took place earlier this year. "We're in a position if a patient had multiple diseases or needed a dual transplant, to grab that expertise from various sources -- because they're all here [at HUP]," MOTP Administrator Deborah Toth explained. These resources place the hospital in the unique position of being able to complete many transplants and cover an enormous range of patient needs at the same time. As a result, HUP has the only program in the Delaware Valley region that can perform heart, kidney, liver, lung and pancreas transplants. Temple University Hospital, for example -- which easily surpasses HUP in terms of the sheer number of transplants it performs-- is only equipped to deal with two transplant types. Other large area hospitals are similarly limited in the scope of their transplant programs, allowing HUP to fight for a share of the transplant market. HUP administrators hope to take advantage of the MOTP unit's strong infrastructure and variety of service offerings to be competitive in the managed care market. "There's a very strong process? which makes us in a very good place for negotiating or marketing our services to a managed care company," Toth noted.