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A heart transplant is an open-heart surgery in which a severely diseased or damaged heart is replaced with a healthy heart from a recently deceased person. Heart transplants have been successfully performed since 1967.
Unfortunately, the number of people waiting for a heart transplant is higher than the number of available organs. About 2,657 patients were waiting for a heart transplant in the United States as of July 2008, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), and 2,210 people received donated hearts in 2007.
A patient generally becomes eligible for a heart transplant when diagnosed as having end-stage heart disease, all other medical interventions have failed and the patient is stable enough to sustain a major surgery.
Coronary artery disease and cardiomyopathy are the most common heart conditions that may lead to a heart transplant. Other diseases include congenital heart disease (the most common reason for heart transplant in children), failure of a previous bypass or heart transplant and valvular heart disease. These conditions can lead to heart failure, in which the heart is unable to meet the body's demand for blood.
Most heart transplant patients are white males, according to the American Heart Association. More than half are between the ages of 50 and 64, and about 20 percent are between the ages of 35 and 49.
Heart transplants are sometimes performed along with lung transplants for individuals with end-stage lung disease due to conditions including:
- Primary pulmonary hypertension. High blood pressure in the blood vessels of the lungs. This is considered a contraindication for a straight heart transplant, making a lung transplant necessary.
- Eisenmenger syndrome. Any type of congenital heart disease that involves severe pulmonary hypertension. The condition accounts for nearly half of all heart-lung transplants.
- Cystic fibrosis. A genetic disease that causes thick mucus to build up in the lungs.
- Bronchiectasis. Destruction and widening of the lungs' large airways.
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