The Czech Republic's first cardiac transplant took place in 1984; now about 40 take place annually. The country's first lung transplants began ten years ago; to date around a hundred have been performed by Professor Pavel Pafko and colleagues at the Motol Faculty Hospital, in Prague.
Following 12 years of development, German surgeons and technicians have successfully implanted the world's first vision prosthesis in six blind patients.
Arrythmogenic remodelling of the left atrium is a common complication of atrial fibrillation, leading to severe haemodynamic disturbances.
By A Chkhotua, T Pantsulaia*, N Maglakelidze at the National Centre of Urology, Tbilisi, Georgia
Lifebridge is the first portable heart-lung machine which promises a great success for the clinlical use.
The new £2 million remote access stereotaxis catheter laboratory at London's Heart Hospital, funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), is the first of its kind in the UK and one of only 40 worldwide.
Results of a gender-specific study to assess the efficacy of the Taxus paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent in women undergoing coronary revascularisation were released at the European Society of Cardiology Congress by interventional device developer Boston Scientific.
The new European Transplantation Regulation makes it very difficult, or even impossible, to run a bone bank from 2007 onwards.
The ethics committee of the UK' s National Health Service (NHS) has cleared the way for the world's first full face transplant.
German medical technology firm Novalung GmbH (est. 2002) produces extracorporeal artificial lungs.
According to leading transplant specialists, within five years almost all renal transplants will be steroid free.
Transplant surgeons use checklists to establish whether donor and recipient hearts are compatible - almost like people looking for suitable partners.
The European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT) - Europe's leading transplant society - has called for the universal backing of new schemes to safely and ethically increase donor organ numbers.
Ventricular assist devices (VAD) have been used since the 1980s, primarily to provide support after cardiac surgery for several days during recovery, or more often to keep patients alive until later heart transplantation (HTx).
Implants presently in use consist of a smooth or textured silicone shell filled with a silicone gel or saline solution. The latter has one decisive drawback - the breast may cool considerably in winter. Smooth silicone implants may also shift or turn.
Cardiac assist devices (CAD) are blood pumps that support the circulatory functions of severely ill cardiac patients.
Birmingham, UK - Giving interleukin-2 receptor antibodies to patients after a kidney transplant can halve the risk of rejection, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal (Interleukin-2 receptor monoclonal antibodies in renal transplantation: meta-analysis of randomised trials BMJ Volume 326, pp 789-91).