Duke Health Performs World’s First Partial Heart Transplant

According to Duke University Health, a team of its surgeons has completed the first partial heart transplant, with living arteries and valves from a donated heart fused onto the heart of the existing newborn patient. This method allows the entire heart to grow as one, which could eliminate the need for multiple heart surgeries in a child’s lifetime and potentially extend the life of the child by decades. The patient has shown remarkable growth since the procedure and will provide insight for future children born with congenital heart diseases.