[Historical review of heart transplantation].

In 1905, Carrel and Guthrie reported the heterotopic heart transplantation on dogs for the first time. In the same year, Shone advanced the transplantation immunity theory which provided a basis for organ transplantation. In 1964, Hardy and his colleagues performed the first human chimpanzee heart transplantation. In 1967, Barnard performed the first human-to-human orthotopic heart transplantation in the world. In 1968 - 1971, 56 hospitals performed 180 heart transplantations world-wide. But because of the poor survival rate after operation, heart transplantations became less frequent. In 1972, Castaneda and Reitz summed up the experiences of heart-lung experimental transplantation, which laid a foundation for human heart-lung transplantation. In 1973, Caves invented myocardium biopsy for rejection surveillance after heart transplantation, which solved the problem of diagnosis for early rejection. In 1981, Stanford University first took cyclosporin A into clinical practice. The acute rejection after heart transplantation was effectively controlled and the long-term survival rate was significantly increased. Heart transplantation entered the second peak period. The launching of Asian heart transplantation began in 1968. Juro·Wada with his medical team performed the first heart transplantation in Japan. In 1978, Zhang Shize in Shanghai performed the first heart transplantation in China.