ABC Medical Center > Procedures > Heart transplant

What is heart transplant?

4 May 2021

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When a damaged or dysfunctional heart has not been able to recover through various pharmacological or surgical therapies, it is necessary to replace the organ with a healthy one provided by a donor. 

Heart transplant is a highly complex surgical procedure, but it currently has good chances of success with an increasingly high survival rate.

The donor’s heart must be completely healthy and meet a series of compatibility requirements with the recipient’s blood type in order to reduce the chances of rejection.

A heart transplant is the best option when:

  • In the aftermath of a heart attack, the heart is so severely damaged that its function is compromised. 
  • There is severe heart failure that does not improve with pharmacological and surgical treatment.
  • You have a congenital heart disease that cannot be repaired by surgery. 
  • Arrhythmias that are not solved by pharmacological or surgical treatments.

Preoperative protocol:

Once the donated organ is available, you will be assessed by the multidisciplinary medical team that will carry out the procedure, which will also explain the potential risks. They will also perform various tests to determine the state of your heart, make sure there are no infections and check the compatibility of the organ that is going to be transplanted.

Postoperative recovery:

You must consider that after surgery you will remain in the hospital from 8 to 22 days. The first two days you will be in the Intensive Care Unit, as you will need rigorous care to ensure that your body is adapting correctly to the transplant.

The recovery time is three to four months, depending on your evolution, but in all cases periodic examination is necessary, and lifelong adherence to the indicated pharmacological treatment to avoid rejection of the transplanted heart.

Potential risks:

  • Stroke.
  • Heart attack.
  • Clots.
  • Kidney or liver damage.
  • Cancer caused by drugs to prevent organ rejection. 
  • Bleeding and infection.
  • Kidney or respiratory failure.
  • High cholesterol, diabetes, and weakened bones.
  • Arrhythmias.
  • Organ rejection.

The Transplant Center, with more than ten years of service, has a multidisciplinary care model for different solid organ transplants within a highly professional, safe, and comfortable environment, in strict adherence to the highest standards in safety and patient care.

Organ and tissue transplants constitute the most important therapeutic advance in the last 50 years in the field of health sciences. Achieving this has involved practically every specialty of modern medicine.


Related centers and departments:

Fuentes: 

  • mayoclinic.org
  • texasheart.org
  • fundaciondelcorazon.com
  • msdmanuals.com
  • medigraphic.com
  • Argüero SR. Trasplantes, una nueva era . Rev CONAMED. 2000;5(2):35-40.
  • Zetina-Tun H, Lezama-Urtecho C, Urías-Báez R, et al. Muerte encefálica, fisiopatología, cuidado óptimo y terapia hormonal para donación cardíaca. Cir Cir. 2012;80(6):573-577.
  • Calderón M. Réquiem para un amigo. Reflexiones sobre la situación actual del trasplante cardiaco en México. Rev Mex Cardiol. 2010;21(2):47-48.
  • Careaga-Reyna G, Ramírez-Castañeda S, Ramírez-Castañeda A. Importancia de la evaluación terciaria del potencial donador en trasplante de corazón. Rev Mex Cardiol. 2008;19(3):149-151.

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