Heart Transplant & the Risks for Developing Hansen's Disease

Complications following any type of organ transplant are expected. Waiting weeks, months and years, organ transplant patients often welcome the risk for complications if there is an opportunity to save their life with the organ transplant procedure. For patients who undergo heart transplant, the complications can be quite extensive, even resulting in the acquisition of unexpected infection.

While considered a highly rare infection in the United States, there have been reported cases of heart transplant patients acquiring quite complex infections, including that of Hansen's disease. While more common outside of the United States, with the World Health Organization reporting more than half a million new cases each year, the development of Hansen's disease is found in less than 100 patients in the U.S.

In heart transplant patients, the risk for acquiring Hansen's disease can come from either infection directly from the heart, or from infection that is acquired from another source, significantly altering the health of the heart that was transplanted. The timing by which the symptoms of Hansen's disease develop, usually first as lesions, can range from a few weeks post-operatively to as long as three to five years. It is important, therefore, that heart transplant patients be well managed in not only their cardiac and cardiovascular health, but their entire health including examination for the development of skin lesions and disorders.

As an infectious disease, Hansen's disease affects the skin, nerves and mucus lining of the respiratory system as well as the eyes. While there is an effective cure for Hansen's disease, the complications can lead to organ transplant rejection and, ultimately, may adversely affect the life of the heart transplant patient without any heart transplant complications. For heart transplant patients, the admission to an organ transplant specialty center will be important as the initiation of antimicrobial medications as used to kill off the infection. For heart transplant patients, the early diagnosis is important to preventing organ rejection.