Matters of the heart: when to transplant or not

In 1967, Dr Christiaan Barnard performed the first transplantation of a human heart into a patient, having already performed about 50 animal heart transplants to ensure success with human patients. Since then medical science has advanced on many levels most notably the evolution of medical devices such as artificial hearts and xenotransplantation. Yet, this is not enough to meet the challenges of dealing with increasing cardiovascular disease in Europe and elsewhere.
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