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Heart transplant — Learn more about this treatment for end-stage heart conditions. Book: Mayo Clinic Healthy Heart for Life!
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Unfortunately, a significant number of patients die before suitable donor hearts become available for transplantation. To meet this ever-growing need, we must continue to seek new and advanced procedures and treatments for heart failure and continue to impress upon healthy community members how truly life-changing the gift of organ donation can be for recipients. We have at our fingertips the potential means to one day treat heart failure without transplantation. While these discoveries are in their early stages, initial progress is promising that eventually cardiologists will solve the donor heart dilemma.

The most promising therapy to potentially ease the shortage of donor hearts — or in the future, replace transplantation entirely — is the left ventricular assist device , or LVAD. This is a mechanical pump that supports functionality in the left side of the failing heart by being surgically implanted just below the heart with a driveline that goes through the skin and connects to its external power source and controller.

Many patients achieve a substantially improved quality of life with LVAD therapy. Today, heart surgeons implant LVADs in patients with heart failure who are awaiting a donor heart or who have severe heart failure but are not candidates for transplantation.

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These devices are technological marvels, though they do come with unique challenges:. Patients must take precautions with the driveline that exits the body and protect it from damage or infection. The devices run off of batteries or electricity, which requires patients to carefully plan for travel. Such complications include strokes, gastrointestinal bleeding, and right heart failure. Improvements are being made with LVAD technologies but we still need further advances.

However, the field is moving quickly.


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This has gained momentum in recent years, including a research study in which a pig heart was successfully transplanted into a baboon that lived longer than two years. When we become capable of transplanting pig hearts into humans, the availability of donor hearts hypothetically could be unlimited. However, xenotransplantation has its hurdles. Immunological differences between humans and pigs leading to organ rejection are complex to overcome. Ethical factors also factor into the development of this procedure.

Heart Transplant

This procedure could help cure heart disease by stimulating or delivering stem cells to encourage regeneration of the heart muscle. Perhaps even more promising is work underway to coax heart cells, which normally do not divide reproduce after birth, into dividing again and replenishing the supply of contracting cells in the heart. Another potential alternative to reverse heart failure is gene therapy. This is the process of introducing a new gene to the heart to correct some underlying abnormality in the heart muscle cells. Organ donation can transform the lives of recipients in an incredibly positive way, giving people who are otherwise going to die the chance to:.

Organ donation can be just as life-changing for the families of donors. However, the vast majority of families with whom I meet find a sense of comfort in doing so. I remember one family whose young son was involved in a vehicle accident. Doing so will help them feel more confident about honoring your wishes if something unexpected happens.

Today, despite the challenge of a donor heart shortage, transplantation is the most effective, longest-lasting therapy for advanced heart failure. But as we look to the future, current therapies will be refined and novel therapies will be developed that could one day eliminate the need for heart transplantation.

Jeff Carpenter: Heart Transplant Patient Story

You and you're your doctor may also decide to change your immunosuppressive medications as new drugs become available. You will require regular checkups after your transplant by a transplant cardiologist. At these visits, your cardiologist will do blood tests to check the levels of your immunosuppressive drugs and look for side effects.

Experience a Heart Transplant in 360°

He or she may also order electrocardiogram, echocardiogram and Holter monitoring to help monitor your heart rhythm and function, or an endomyocardial biopsy, which is a diagnostic procedure that surveys the sufficiency of your immunosuppressive therapy. Your doctor will evaluate your coronary arteries yearly or every other year to monitor for signs of narrowed coronary arteries in your transplanted heart.

You should also have routine medical checkups to maintain overall health.

Why heart transplants are carried out

Heart transplant recipients have no specific activity restrictions. Discuss activity ideas with your transplant cardiologist. Endocarditis is an infection of the inner layer of the heart. While some people who have congenital heart disease must take antibiotics prior to some medical and dental procedures to prevent endocarditis, most heart transplant recipients don't need them unless they also have significant heart valve disease.

Women who've had a transplant could have complications during pregnancy. Depending on the type, immunosuppressive medications may negatively affect the fetus. You may also have a greater risk of rejection once the baby is born. If you are considering pregnancy, discuss the pros and cons with your transplant cardiologist and obstetrician. A transplant heart can help you lead a more active, fulfilling life, but there may be times when additional surgery is required. For instance, if the rhythm of your transplant heart becomes slow, you may need to have a pacemaker.

Life experiences in heart transplant recipients

Rarely, the tricuspid valve can become damaged by the endomyocardial biopsy procedure; if that happens it will need to be repaired or replaced. Patients with congenital heart disease who have had a coarctation repair or problems with narrow or small pulmonary arteries may need surgery or interventional catheterization after the transplant to increase the size of these areas.

Sometimes, a transplanted heart may fail because of rejection, damage to the heart cells or coronary arteries of the heart, which leads to heart failure. If this happens, doctors can sometimes transplant another heart. Congenital Heart Defects. About Congenital Heart Defects.

The Impact of Congenital Heart Defects. Understand Your Risk. Symptoms and Diagnosis. Care and Treatment. Tools and Resources.