Early mortality after surgical repair of post infarction septal rupture is still considerable. Early repair and posterior rupture are predictors of early mortality. Long-term survival in patients surviving the immediate postoperative period is limited by pre-existing coronary artery disease, postoperative renal failure and the presence of a residual postoperative shunt.

Background Despite advances in pediatric health care over recent decades, it is not clear whether survival in children with congenital heart disease (CHD) is still increasing. Methods and Results We identified all patients with CHD using nationwide Swedish health registries for 1980 to 2017. We examined the survival trends in children with CHD; we investigated the mortality risk in patients with CHD compared with matched controls without CHD from the general population using Cox proportional regression models and Kaplan–Meier survival analysis. Among 64 396 patients with CHD and 639 012 matched controls without CHD, 3845 (6.0%) and 2235 (0.3%) died, respectively. The mean study follow‐up (SD) was 11.4 (6.3) years in patients with CHD. The mortality risk was 17.7 (95% CI, 16.8–18.6) times higher in children with CHD compared with controls. The highest mortality risk was found during the first 4 years of life in patients with CHD (hazard ratio [HR], 19.6; 95% CI, 18.5–20.7). When stratified by lesion group, patients with non‐conotruncal defects had the highest risk (HR, 97.2; 95% CI, 80.4–117.4). Survival increased substantially according to birth decades, but with no improvement after the turn of the century where survivorship reached 97% in children with CHD born in 2010 to 2017. Conclusions Survival in children with CHD has increased substantially since the 1980s; however, no significant improvement has been observed this century. Currently, >97% of children with CHD can be expected to reach adulthood highlighting the need of life‐time management.

The use of EVLP seems safe and indicates that lungs otherwise refused for LTx can be recovered and subsequently used for transplantation, although time to extubation and ICU stay were longer for the EVLP group.

Pretransplant LVAD therapy reduces an elevated PVR in heart transplant recipients, but there was no statistically significant difference in posttransplant survival in patients with PH with, or without LVAD therapy. The study revealed no differences in survival in patients regardless of the severity of the PH.

Objective: To study the achievability of device weaning in patients receiving left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) as a bridge to transplantation. Methods: Eighteen consecutive patients receiving a LVAD between September 1997 and June 2002 were included in the study. During a four-month follow-up, patients were repeatedly evaluated with right heart catheterization and echocardiography and, if functional improvement was observed, studied with the device turned off. Cardiac recovery was defined as off-pump LVEF ≥ 40% together with a significant improvement in invasive haemodynamic measurements (CI ≥ 2.5 and PCWP ≤ 10-12 mm Hg). Patients fulfilling these criteria were considered for weaning. Results: Three patients fulfilled the predefined criteria for cardiac recovery and were subjected to device explantation. In one patient, a young female with acute myocarditis, the following course was uneventful. In the second patient, a male with dilated cardiomyopathy, heart failure reoccurred only a few days later. The third patient had a relapse of giant cell myocarditis and was transplanted. One patient underwent transplantation before follow-up evaluation could be performed. Conclusion: In our experience, patients with severe advanced heart failure are unlikely to show significant cardiac recovery following treatment with LVAD, in contrast to previous suggestions.

ECMO used as a bridge to LTx results in acceptable survival in selected patients with end-stage pulmonary disease.

The use of ex vivo lung perfusion seems safe and indicates that some lungs otherwise refused for lung transplantation can be recovered and transplanted with acceptable short-term results.

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