ABSTRACT
On 15 June 2000, we performed the first human autologous skeletal myoblast transplantation in a patient with severe post-infarction left ventricular dysfunction.1 Nine additional patients were subsequently included in this phase I feasibility and safety trial, which ended in November 2001.2 ‘Medium term’ is thus probably a more appropriate wording than long term for describing the effects of the procedure. Nevertheless, the data from this early experience as well as those subsequently reported by other groups allow us to draw some conclusions about the feasibility and safety of the procedure and, to a lesser extent, about its functional efficacy.
