Oral sildenafil: potential role in heart transplantation. Review of the literature and personal experience

Abstract

Early right ventricular dysfunction after heart transplantation (HTx) is a major complication especially in patients with pre-transplant pulmonary arterial hypertension (PH). The possibility to reverse secondary PH using sodium nitroprusside (NPS) or inhaled nitric oxide has been already established and there is a well-known stratification of the incidence of early death after HTx related to the reversibility of PH. Despite this, in a group of patients with irreversible disorders of the pulmonary vascular bed, conventional therapy may not be useful. However, the decision to disqualify non-responsive HTx candidates may be inappropriate, considering that PH unresponsiveness to NPS does not exclude the possibility to decrease pulmonary pressures with other medications. In case of non-responsive patients, the debate regarding the role of new selective pulmonary vasodilators is still open and oral sildenafil use in cardiac transplant candidates and recipients is growing. Despite this, there are many reports of the use of phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors in patients with chronic heart failure and several studies describe the positive effects of sildenafil in reducing pulmonary vascular resistance and pulmonary arterial pressure and in increasing cardiac output. Oral sildenafil use in cardiac transplant candidates or recipients is still limited.