Fig 1.
Diagrammatic (A) and photographic (B) representation of the middle of the recipient’s infrarenal aorta between renal artery and its bifurcation, which was ligatured with a 9–0 nylon suture.
Fig 2.
(A) Diagrammatic representation of the proximal and the distal aortotomies on the recipient’s infrarenal aorta were performed above and below the ligature, respectively, for the subsequent anastomoses of the donor’s aorta graft into the recipient in an end-to-side fashion. (B) Diagrammatic representation of the left side of the anastomotic site of the recipient’s infrarenal aorta, which was anastomosed to the posterior wall of the donor’s aorta graft within the vessel.
Fig 3.
Diagrammatic (A) and photographic (B) representation of the anterior wall of the aorta graft, which was anastomosed to the posterior wall of the ascending aorta of the heart graft within the vessel.
Fig 4.
Diagrammatic (A) and photographic (B) representation of the anterior wall of the ascending aorta of the heart graft, which was anastomosed to the right side of the anastomotic site of the recipient’s infrarenal aorta.
Fig 5.
Diagrammatic (A) and photographic (B) representation of the outflow tract (pulmonary artery) of the donor’s heart graft, which was connected to the recipient’s inferior vena cava (IVC).
Fig 6. Median time for donor heart harvest (red), donor aorta harvest (blue), transplant recipient preparation (green), total anastomosis time for the combined transplant procedure (pink) and total ischemic time (orange). Data are represented as median time (in minutes) ± the range in time for all procedures. n = 30 transplants.
Fig 7. Representative micrographs of the aortic (A) and cardiac (B) grafts 90+ days post-transplantation treated with anti-CD40L and CTLA4.Ig stained with hematoxylin & eosin. Scale bars = 100 μm for (A); 500 μm for (B).