COVID-19 in Early Postoperative Heart Transplantation – Initial Experience

Introduction

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is rapidly increasing worldwide. Brazil is the country with the second highest number of cases, and it is considered South America’s epicenter.

Cardiovascular disease is known to be an important risk factor for infection susceptibility, illness severity, and poor prognosis in COVID-19. Heart transplantation (HT) recipients may have an increased risk due to their comorbidities; however, it has been theorized that immunosuppression might protect them from the cytokine storm responsible for worse outcomes.^, On the other hand, infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been reported in HT patients with disease presentation similar to general population, questioning the theorized immunosuppression protective mechanism.^–

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