From November, 1986 to April, 1997; 92 orthotopic heart transplants were performed, with recipient mean age of 44,9 years (range 3 to 63 years). Recipient diagnoses included dilated cardiomyopathy in 42 (44.6 per cent) ischemic cardiomyopathy in 23 (25 per cent), Chagas disease in 21 (22.8 per cent), valve disease in 3 (3.2 per cent) patients. The surgical technique used (described by Lower e Shumway, in 1960, with minor modification) was satisfactory and without complication. Graft ischemic time - Longer in heart transported from other institutions compared to side-by-side transplantation - was always less than 4 hours.

The most common chronic complications of immunosuppressive therapy were:

arterial hyperthension (84.6 per cent), hyperuricemia (75.4 per cent) and hypercholesterolemia (63 per cent). Regarding infections, viral were the most common ones with 92 (45.6 per cent) followed by bacterial with 35 (38.0 per cent), and protozoal with 15 (16.3 per cent) cases. Among bacterial infections, 7 occurred in the surgical wound, with good evolution. Among those infections caused by protozoal, 7 (46.6 per cent) were due to Trypanossoma cruzi. The overall mortality rate within 30 days of transplantation was 17.3 per cent, with infection, neurologic complications and rejection as major causes. From 30 days to 1 year of transplantation, the mortality rate was 10.3 per cent, with infection and rejection as primary causes. And after one year post-transplantation, the mortality rate was 14 per cent, with several different causes: sudden death, infection, rejection and others. The actuarial survival estimates at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 years were 71.6 per cent, 66.5 per cent, 60.5 per cent, 54.4 per cent, 54.4 per cent and 54.4 per cent, respectively. There were no follow-up losses, and all the surviving patients are in functional type I of the NYHA. Cardiac transplantation procedure is possible in our community with accetable survival and post-operative complication rates acceptable, even though different from international statistics.