Bruno Reichart

Bruno Reichart (born 18 January 1943) is a retired German cardiothoracic surgeon who performed Germany's first successful heart transplant in 1981 and its first combined heart–lung transplant in 1983.

In 1984, he succeeded Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town and was appointed president of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) from 1988 to 1990. He returned to Munich in 1990 as director of the Cardiac Surgery Clinic at the Klinikum Großhadern of LMU Munich.

He has also been active in experimental research in xenotransplantation and from 2011 became a spokesman for funded research into the transplantation of pig tissue and organs into primates, with a team involving veterinarians, virologists, clinicians, lawyers and ethicists.

Early life and education Bruno Reichart was born in Vienna in 1943 and grew up in Ingolstadt. He studied medicine at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg and LMU Munich The procedure was previously performed more than 10 years earlier in 1969, when two heart transplants took place in the Cardiac Surgery Clinic at LMU, but they were both unsuccessful, with one dying within two days of surgery, from a coronary thrombosis.

Between 1978 and 1982, he held various professorships including Boston University, the University of Birmingham, the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, the University of Paris, and Stanford University. Under his leadership, intermittently spanning over 40 years at LMU Munich, more than 1,000 heart transplants were performed.

Combined heart-lung transplant 1983 On 13 February 1983, The recipient was 27 years old and bed-bound with severe pulmonary hypertension and diseased liver and kidneys. The donor, three years younger, had died the previous day from a clot in the brain. Following the combined heart–lung transplant, the recipient died after ten days. leading a group that develops transgenic pigs.

To prevent hyperacute rejection and coagulation disorders, harmful pig genes are replaced with certain human genes. This German Research Foundation (DFG) funded research, the “Biology of xenogeneic cell, tissue, and organ transplantation – from basic research to clinical application” has involved collaborating with veterinarians, virologists, clinicians, lawyers and ethicists. who honoured him with the Pioneer Award for his work in heart surgery in Munich at their 35th annual meeting He holds emeritus membership of the society.

Selected publications Books Crossing the Borders in Heart Surgery: Simple Thoughts, University of Cape Town, 1985.

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