British Columbia’s first heart transplant was performed at Vancouver General Hospital in 1988. One hundred and eleven transplants were performed at that site until 1996. At that time, the program was moved to St Paul’s Hospital when the site was named the Provincial Heart Centre. Since 1996, over 350 heart transplants have been performed at St Paul’s. This Clinical Guideline contains the current practices in the BC Adult Heart Transplant
Program. Program members are a part of the Canadian Cardiac Transplant Network (CCTN). This network is affiliated with or works closely with Canadian Society for Transplantation (CST), Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) and Canadian Blood Services (CBS). The CCTN sets policy for Heart Transplant Programs across the country.
The Adult Heart Transplant Program annually reviews its outcomes and has a mechanism to review practices weekly. An annual report is created by BC Transplant and presented to the team for discussion and planning. A copy of this report is available upon request to the Clinical Nurse Specialist (akaan@providencehealth.bc.ca).
The Program follows the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Consensus (CCS) Statements and Guidelines as well as resources released by the Canadian Cardiac Transplant Network (CCTN) as a basis for its protocols pre-and post-heart transplant (see hyperlink below). As well, the team refers to the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplant Consensus documents and Guidelines.