From March 1985 to September 1999, 214 patients were submitted to cardiac transplantation in consequence of refractory cardiomyopathy to medical therapy. Two patients (0.9%) aged 33 and 49 years, had developed thoracic aortic dissection as fatal late complication after the orthotopic cardiac transplantation. In the first patient suffering from idiopathic cardiomyopathy this complication occurred in the 93rd month of evolution, while in the second, with ischemic cardiomyopathy, the occurrence was early, in the 11th month. Systemic arterial hypertension and a smoking history had been showed as factors of risk in both cases. The clinical manifestations of the dissection had occurred of acute form and catastrophic that had prevented any surgical management. Greater attention of this rare complication can affect its bad natural evolution.
Heart transplantation; Heart transplantation; Cardiomyopathies; Cardiomyopathies; Aorta; Aorta
