Rare Mirrored-Organ Patient Survives Groundbreaking Heart-Liver Transplant

A 32-year-old man from Campania has become the second person in the world to receive a combined heart and liver transplant despite having situs viscerum inversus, a rare condition where his organs are mirrored. The complex surgery took place on February 14 at Turin's Molinette Hospital, offering the patient his only chance of survival after years of severe heart disease and liver complications.

The patient was born with severe congenital heart disease and had already undergone three open-heart surgeries by adolescence. Over time, his heart condition caused liver cirrhosis, which later developed into liver cancer. A combined heart-liver transplant became his sole lifeline.

Doctors in Campania referred him to Città della Salute in Turin, where a multidisciplinary team took on the high-risk case. The operation faced an extraordinary challenge: his reversed internal anatomy due to situs viscerum inversus. To retrieve the donor organs, a team travelled to another hospital to extract the heart-liver block while maintaining constant contact with the transplant surgeons in Turin.

The patient was prepared in the cardiac surgery operating room as the organs were rushed back. Dozens of healthcare professionals coordinated the immense logistical effort required. As of February 2026, no other patient worldwide has undergone a similar procedure since the first such transplant in February 2024 at the University of Miami, where a 19-year-old received the same operation.

The surgery marks a rare medical achievement for patients with situs viscerum inversus. The combined transplant addressed both his failing heart and cancerous liver, giving him a chance at long-term survival. No further cases of this specific procedure have been reported globally since the initial operation two years prior.