A simple method is presented which proved to be effective for maintaining the heart and lungs viable and functioning in good hemodynamic and metabolic conditions outside of the body, for a period of up to 7 hours. After this, the heart-lung preparation is transplanted to another animal which maintains good parameters also for 3 hours. The hemodynamic, biochemical and histological features of this preparation are presented. In conclusion, preservation of a heart-lung allograft in a dynamic state provides a means to transport donor organs over long distances, and appears to be suitable to serve as a graft for heart or heart-lung transplantation.
heart-lung preparation; heart-lung preservation; heart transplantation