Publication of Heart Institute Research in The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation

For the first time in Ukraine, our team has published research findings in the world’s most influential journal dedicated to heart and lung transplantation — The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation.
The article, entitled “Heart transplantation in Ukraine during wartime: A retrospective cohort study of standard vs marginal donor heart transplantation outcomes”, presents a comprehensive analysis of transplantation results under the extraordinary conditions of war.
Authors of the study:
Borys Todurov, Havrylo Kovtun, Sofiia Chaikovska, Terin Roberts, Mykola Melnyk, Andrii Bachynskyi, Ihor Kuzmych, and Serhii Sudakevych.

Unique Research: Heart Transplantation in Ukraine During Wartime

Our study is unique: we have demonstrated to the world how heart transplantation is performed under wartime conditions, and why Ukrainian cardiac surgery continues to advance even in the most challenging circumstances.

The central focus of the research was the comparison of outcomes between standard and marginal donor hearts.

Marginal hearts are those previously considered unsuitable for transplantation — with prolonged ischemic time, requiring coronary artery stenting, valve repair, or specialized donor perfusion. We have shown that even such complex organs can save lives.

The study also describes how donor hearts are transported under wartime conditions and how international protocols are adapted to the realities of Ukraine.

Thanks to collaboration with Joseph Rogers, Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, and Professor Göran Dellgren of Sweden, we were able to present Ukrainian expertise to the global medical community.

At present, we are the only team in Ukraine with publications in this journal. Yet this is only the beginning — we have opened the path for Ukrainian cardiac surgery to be represented at the highest international level.

Link to the article: PubMed

Statement from Professor Andrii Bachynskyi, MD, PhD

Founder and Director of the Institute for Autonomous Resuscitation and Evacuation Research and Innovation (AREVA), San Antonio, Texas, USA

“It is a great honor in my professional career to collaborate with this team of world-class cardiac surgeons and intensive care specialists, who have become my close friends. I am grateful for the opportunity to co-author this unprecedented scientific work, which highlights the best practices in heart transplantation worldwide — under missile and mine attacks. There is no other center like the Central Heart Institute, and no other team like the physicians Todurov, Chaikovska, Melnyk, Kuzmych, and Sudakevych. I am also deeply pleased that the AREVA Institute in San Antonio, which I founded, has signed an official long-term strategic cooperation agreement with the Central Heart Institute team. Together we will work on the analysis of war-related injuries, heart transplantation, intensive care practices, and trauma surgery, while formalizing new directions of research and innovation in medical care using drones and other technologies — all of which will contribute to Ukrainian scientists receiving the global recognition they truly deserve.”