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Doctors at the MUHC have announced Quebec's first successful combined heart/liver transplant. The patient, Patrice Dionne, age 54 years, was transferred from the Institut de cardiologie de Québec (Hôpital Laval) to the MUHC. The patient received his new heart and liver during a 6-hour operation on April 14, 2006, and was discharged 10 days later. The complex procedure involved 15 physicians, surgeons and other health care professionals. The MUHC conducts the most organ transplants in Quebec and has the most comprehensive multi-organ transplant program in the province.

"Combined heart/liver transplants are so rare that the best technique for a combined implantation has not yet been elucidated," says Dr. Kevin Lachapelle, a cardiac surgeon at the MUHC, who performed the combined procedure with Dr. Peter Metrakos (liver surgeon). "Historically, these procedures are done separately, but because both organs were procured from Quebec City at the same time by MUHC Drs. Ergina and Paraskevas and because sequential transplants can have a profound negative effect on the heart, we decided a simultaneous implantation offered the best hope of success."

The patient, Patrice Dionne, who was referred to the Institut de cardiologie de Québec for medical evaluation for a possible heart transplant, was transferred to the MUHC after liver complications necessitated a complex multi-organ transplant. "The patient had waited three years for a heart transplant, during which time his liver began to deteriorate," says Dr. Bernard Cantin, Director of Heart Transplantation at the Institut de cardiologie de Québec. "At this point we knew the MUHC was the only hospital where we could transfer our patient for this lifesaving surgery." The speed and ease with which this patient transfer occurred demonstrates the level of collaboration and teamwork that exists between hospitals within Quebec.

"The patient made a rapid recovery after surgery, and was discharged after only 10 days," says Dr. Nadia Gianetti, Medical Director the Heart Failure and Heart Transplant Program at the MUHC. "The seamless collaboration between the cardiac and liver transplant teams at the MUHC is one of many reasons why the planning, surgery and follow-up care of Mr. Dionne was so straightforward and uncomplicated." The patient has now fully recovered and is again living a full and rich life. "I am extremely impressed with the doctors at the MUHC; from the outset I had unquestioned confidence in their ability to perform this complex surgery," says Patrice Dionne. "I'm so thankful that I will now be able to enjoy this Father's Day with my three sons."

"As a comprehensive multi-organ transplant program, we are accustomed to collaborating with other institutions across Quebec and other provinces for this form of highly specialized patient care," says Dr. Renzo Cecere, Surgical Director of Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation at the MUHC. "We are particularly pleased to have specialists from every discipline with a strong interest in transplantation, allowing us to successfully offer combined organ transplants within one institution."

The world's first heart transplant was conducted less than 40 years ago; complex combined transplants have only been conducted since the 1980s. Multi-organ transplants, such as the combined heart-liver transplant conducted at the MUHC, require a multi-specialized team, consisting of cardiologists, hepatologists, intensive care specialists, anesthesiologists, nurses, physiotherapists and Transplant Quebec coordinators. Combined heart-liver transplants are rare — only a few successful procedures have been performed in Canada, and this is the first in Quebec.

The Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Health Centre (MUHC) is a comprehensive academic health institution with an international reputation for excellence in clinical programs, research and teaching. The MUHC is a merger of five teaching hospitals affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ — the Montreal Children's, Montreal General, Royal Victoria, and Montreal Neurological Hospitals, as well as the Montreal Chest Institute. Building on the tradition of medical leadership of the founding hospitals, the goal of the MUHC is to provide patient care based on the most advanced knowledge in the health care field, and to contribute to the development of new knowledge.

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