Purpose: Social support of patients awaiting heart transplant is mandatory to secure acceptable outcomes after heart transplantation. The types of social support that we have required in our program includes: spouses, other family members (brothers, sisters, children), and friends. We sought to evaluate whether different types of social support lead to different outcomes.

Methods: Between 2010 and 2013 we evaluated 294 patients who were found to be acceptable for heart transplant and were felt to have adequate social support. Patients were divided based on whether their designated caregiver(s) was a spouse (n=185), sibling (n=22), parent (n=30), friend (n=28), or adult child (n=29). All patients were discharged after their transplant surgery. 1-Year endpoints included: actuarial survival, freedom from readmissions, treated infections, treated rejections, and non-fatal major adverse cardiac events (NF-MACE: defined as myocardial infarction, new congestive heart failure, percutaneous coronary intervention, ICD/pacemaker placement, and stroke).

Results: Patients who are cared for by family members appeared to have comparable outcomes to those who had non-family caregivers. 1-Year actuarial survival, freedom from readmissions, NF-MACE, treated rejections, and treated infections were similar among all groups. There was also no difference in the number of readmissions among the groups. (See table)

Conclusion: There does not appear to be a difference in outcomes in heart transplant patients who were cared for by their specific family members and those who were cared for by non-family members.

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