A human cardiac transplant: The interim report of a successful operation performed at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town by BARNARD, Christiaan - 1967

Capetown: Health and Medical Publishing Group, 1967. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Near Fine. 1st Edition. Soft cover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. In: South African Medical Journal, Capetown, Vol. 41, No. 48, December 30, 1967, pp. 1271-1274. 4to (275 x 214 mm). Entire issue (devoted to human heart transplantation), pp. lviii (interspersed adverts), 1257-1278. Original printed wrappers, stapled as issued (slight bumping to lower corner). Little age-toned internally, but generally crisp and clean. ----

FIRST EDITION of the special heart transplantation issue of the South African Medical Journal in which all aspects of the first human heart transplant are described in detail. Christiaan Barnard and his 31 team members operated on Louis Washkansky on December 3, 1967. The operation took 5 hours and the patient survived for eighteen days. One important member of Barnard's team was the colored South African Hamilton Naki, who made significant contributions to the development of the surgical technique, which however were concealed be the apartheid regime. This special issue, published less than a month after the operation and just nine days after Washkansky's death, includes articles on the experimental background of human heart transplantation, issues relating to the selection of a donor, the preoperative assessment of the recipient, tissue typing tests, the anesthetist's view (with a chronology of the operation), the interim report on the case, and the provisional autopsy report on the first human to undergo a heart transplant. - Visit our website to see more images!