The first human heart transplantation was performed by Christian Barnard from South Africa in December 1967. Immediately after this event, Dr Norman Shamway and his colleagues at Stanford University in January 1968 conducted the first human heart transplantation in the United States.

In 1980 cyclosporine immunosuppression using led to improved survival rates, and as a result, transplantation has become the standard treatment for terminal heart failure. The number of such operations performed worldwide annually is approximately 5,500.

In Ukraine, heart transplantation remains a «unique operation». However, the development of this field of medicine is a priority for the health care system.

During the last two months, events that have been extremely important for this industry have taken place: two heart transplantations have been performed in Ukraine by a leading cardiac surgeon Professor Borys Todurov, Head of the Department of Cardiosurgery, Endovascular and Extracorporal Technologies of Shupyk NMAPE and a team of specialists, which included teaching staff of the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care of the Academy: Professor Oleg Loskutov, Head of the Department and Professor Oleksandr Druzhyna.

The success of these operations is mainly due to the coordinated teamwork, innovation and initiative of all participants.

In the future, it is planned to improve the results obtained and improve the work on cooperation with Ukrainian and foreign colleagues to raise transplantation in Ukraine to a new level.