THE FIRST HUMAN HEART TRANSPLANT

BARNARD, C.N.

Human heart Transplantation / Hartoorplanting in de mens: "South African Medical Journal, Vol. 41: no. 48, 30 December 1967. [Containing, among other writings: A Human Cardiac Transplant: An Interim Report of a Successful Operation Performed at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town].

(Cape Town, 1967). 4to. The entire issue, in the original green/white and illustrated wrappers, bound in very nice full burgundy cloth with gilt lettering to front board. A bit of brownspotting to a couple of leaves, due to the paper quality, but overall an excellent, clean and bright copy of this richly illustreted issue, which is devoted entirely to the groundbreaking medical performance that was Barnard's human heart transplant. LX pp. + pp. 1257-1278 (the pagination includes the wrappers).

First printing in this scarce issue, in which Barnard's milestone paper of modern medicine appeared, describing for the first time one of the most important medical performances in the course of history - "the most publicised event in world medical history", namely the first human heart transplant. This medical breakthrough introduced to the world a way to prolong life that would become of seminal importance to modern man.

The entire issue of the "South African Medical Journal" is devoted to Barnard's astonishing performance (done only three weeks prior to the publication) and is very interesting in itself, constituting a magnificent historical document. Apart from the first appearance of Barnard's paper, it also contains tributes to Barnard and his team by other leading physicians, ethical discussions about tranplantations, a description of the honourary degree bestowed upon Barnard due to the operation, discussions about donors for heart transplantations, papers on legal requirements, pre-operative assessment, tissue typing tests anestesia, and, of course, the great operation itself. To that also comes the highly interesting "Provisional Report on the Autopsy of L.W. (the patient, Louis Washkansky) as well as numerous advertisements and several heartfelt congratulations to Barnard (and his team) upon the operation (e.g. a half-page "add" saying "UPJOHN and their S. African Subsidiary/ TUCO (PTY LTD./ heartily congratulate/ all concerned/ in the historic/ HEART TRANSPLANTATION/ carried out at Groote Schuur Hospital" and many others like it), reflecting the astonishing effect that this historic event immidiately had upon contemporary society.

"Christiaan (Chris) Barnard was born in 1922 and qualified in medicine at the University of Cape Town in 1946. Following surgical training in South Africa and the USA, Barnard established a successful open-heart surgery programme at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town in 1958. In 1967, he led the team that performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant. The article describing this remarkable achievement was published in the South African Medical Journal just three weeks after the event and is one of the most cited articles in the cardiovascular field. In the lay media as well, this first transplant remains the most publicised event in world medical history. Although the first heart transplant patient survived only 18 days, four of Groote Schuur Hospital's first 10 patients survived for more than one year, two living for 13 and 23 years, respectively. This relative success amid many failures worldwide did much to generate guarded optimism that heart transplantation would eventually become a viable therapeutic option. This first heart transplant and subsequent ongoing research in cardiac transplantation at the University of Cape Town and in a few other dedicated centres over the subsequent 15 years laid the foundation for heart transplantation to become a well-established form of therapy for end-stage cardiac disease. During this period from 1968 to 1983, Chris Barnard and his team continued to make major contributions to organ transplantation, notably the development of the heterotopic ( 'piggy-back') heart transplants; advancing the concept of brain death, organ donation and other related ethical issues; better preservation and protection of the donor heart (including hypothermic perfusion storage of the heart; studies on the haemodynamic and metabolic effects of brain death; and even early attempts at xenotransplantation." (Cardiovasc J Afr. 2009 Jan-Feb; 20(1):31-5.)

Garrison&Morton: 3047.12 ("First cardiac homotransplant in man.").

Order-nr.: 51641