Publication date: Sep 14, 2023

Heart transplant recipients have been reported to be at a significantly elevated risk of poor outcomes from COVID-19 infection owing to their underlying comorbidities and immunosuppression. We conducted a single-centre retrospective cohort of all heart transplant recipients who were known to have contracted COVID-19 between January 2020 to September 2022. Electronic medical records were used to collect baseline demographics, vaccination status, COVID-19 treatment received, hospitalisation data and mortality. Our primary endpoint was mortality and our secondary endpoint was hospitalisation. Between January 2020 and September 2022, 132 heart transplant recipients at our single centre contracted COVID-19 infection. Our population had high rates of vaccination with 124 patients (94%) having received at least 2 vaccines. We found significantly lower rates of mortality and hospitalisation than had been previously reported earlier in the pandemic, with a mortality rate of 8/132 (6%) and hospitalisation rate of 21/132 (16%).

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