CARDIAC DISEASE represents the leading cause of death in the United States.14 Many surgical procedures have been introduced which incrementally have been demonstrated to be therapeutic: closed and open repair of congenital heart disease, rheumatic and arteriosclerotic valvular replacement, and the current experience with myocardial revascularization and coronary artery bypass operation. The surgical treatment of coronary artery disease with infarction includes aneurysmectomy, repairs of papillary muscle dysfunction, and ventricular septal defect closure. Most difficult, however, has been a surgical solution for patients with mechanical failure, specifically those with primary myopathy or diffuse infarction due to coronary artery disease. Current proposals include assist devices as well as total replacement either by transplantation or with a mechanical device. Despite significant and widespread interest in mechanical devices, design factors for control, power, and biocompatible materials, cost of production for energy sources,13 and reliability make the issue of a total replacement device real only on a timescale of a decade, if indeed that soon. On the other hand, heart transplantation is available now. Many, but not all, of the fundamental questions with respect to feasibility of the procedure in canines were studied over the past few years going back to 1959, including surgical technic,9 cardiac preservation,10 diagnosis of rejection,'2 hemodynamics despite denervation,4'5 and selective immunosuppression." Other questions which were to be extrapolated to the heart experience were studied in