What Is a Heart Transplant?

A heart transplant is surgery to remove a person's diseased heart and replace it with a healthy heart from a deceased donor. Ninety percent of heart transplants are done on patients who have end-stage heart failure.

Heart failure is a condition in which the heart is damaged or weakened and can't pump enough blood to meet the body's needs. "End-stage" means the condition has become so severe that all treatments, other than heart transplant, have failed.

Overview

Heart transplants are done as a life-saving measure for end-stage heart failure when medical treatment and less drastic surgery have failed.

Because donor hearts are in short supply, patients who need a heart transplant go through a careful selection process. They need to be sick enough to need a new heart, yet healthy enough to receive it.

Survival rates for people receiving heart transplants have improved over the past 5 to 10 years, especially in the first year after the transplant.

About 88 percent of patients survive the first year after transplant surgery, and 72 percent survive for 5 years. The 10-year survival rate is close to 50 percent, and 16 percent of heart transplant patients survive 20 years.

After the surgery, most heart transplant recipients (about 90 percent) can come close to resuming their normal lifestyles. However, fewer than 40 percent return to work for many different reasons.

The Heart Transplant Process

The heart transplant process starts when doctors refer patients who have end-stage heart failure to a heart transplant center for evaluation. Patients found to be eligible for a heart transplant are placed on a waiting list for a donor heart.

Heart transplant surgery is done in a hospital when a suitable donor heart is found. After the transplant, patients are started on a lifelong health care plan. The plan involves multiple medicines and frequent medical checkups.

Revised October 2009