Medicine Novel heart transplant applied in Europe for the first time
Doctors in Geneva have performed a partial heart transplant for the first time in Europe. The procedure was performed in September on a twelve-year-old boy with a complex congenital heart disease.
16.10.2025, 15:00
SDA
The young patient is in good condition, the University Hospital of Geneva (HUG) announced on Thursday.
Since the first partial heart transplant in 2022 at Duke University (USA), only around 30 such procedures have been performed worldwide - so far exclusively in the United States.
Unlike a classic heart transplant, in which the entire heart of a recipient is replaced by a donor heart, this procedure only involved transplanting heart valves from a donor, while the rest of the heart was preserved.
This reduces the risk of a rejection reaction. In addition, unlike conventional artificial prostheses, the transplanted living valves can grow with the child - and thus help to avoid further operations, as the HUG explained.
