What is Heart Transplant?

This is surgery to remove a severely diseased and failing heart. It is replaced with a healthy heart from a deceased donor.

Normal vs. Diseased Heart © 2009 Nucleus Medical Media, Inc.

A heart transplant is done if you have:

• End stage heart disease that is life-threatening and cannot be fixed (but you are in otherwise good health)—This is most often due to cardiomyopathy (disease of the heart muscle) with severe congestive heart failure.
• Severe coronary artery disease that cannot be fixed with medicine or other surgeries
• Congenital heart defects
• Valvular defects making it too hard for the heart to pump blood through the body
• Uncontrollable life-threatening irregular heart rhythms

Possible Complications

If you are planning to have a heart transplant, your doctor will review a list of possible complications, which may include:

• Infection
• Rejection of the new heart
• Coronary artery disease (50% of all heart-transplant recipients develop coronary artery disease)
• Pneumonia
• Blood clots
• Bleeding
• Decreased brain function
• Damage to other body organs, like the kidneys
• Irregular heart rate
• Anesthesia-related problems
• Infection or cancer related to taking immunosuppressive medicines
• Death

More than 80% of heart transplant patients live for at least one year after surgery. Most return to normal activities, including work and exercise.

Some factors that may increase the risk of complications include:

• Age: 60 or older ...