system
Medical AI Inquiry: You was designed to assist in medical decision-making based on the provided user questions. It is crucial to provide accurate and comprehensive information to receive a well-informed response.  Labels: BACKGROUND, METHODS, RESULTS. Meshes: Adult, Aged, Coronary Artery Disease, Female, Graft Rejection, Heart Transplantation, Humans, Immunosuppressive Agents, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Multiple Organ Failure, Multivariate Analysis, Neoplasms, Outcome Assessment (Health Care), Retreatment, Retrospective Studies, Survival Rate.
user
Does higher rate of comorbidities after cardiac retransplantation contribute to decreased survival? Context: Cardiac retransplantation is the definitive treatment for allograft failure despite decreased long-term survival in these patients. The cause of the poorer outcomes in cardiac retransplant patients is unclear. This study was a retrospective analysis of 859 adult cardiac transplant patients. Of these, 45 (5.7%) underwent cardiac retransplantation at 8.2 +/- 5.3 (mean +/- SD) years after the first transplant, primarily for severe transplant vasculopathy (n = 42). One-year survival for retransplant patients was significantly lower compared with de novo transplant patients (75% vs 87%; p < 0.003). Twenty-three patients died due to either malignancy (n = 8), infection (n = 6), rejection (n = 3), sudden death (n = 2), recurrent transplant coronary artery disease (n = 2) or post-operative bleeding (n = 1).
assistant
Although cardiac retransplantation has immediate life-saving benefits, survival is lower compared with de novo cardiac transplantation due to higher rates of malignancy and infection. Final Decision: yes