A heart transplant is the surgery to remove a person’s diseased heart and replace it with a healthy heart from deceased donor. Most heart transplants are done on patients who have end stage heart failure. The condition of heart failure is when a heart is weak or damaged. And it is not in the condition to pump enough blood to meet the body’s need. End treatment here implies no other treatment than
They are life-saving measure in the condition of heart failure. Donor hearts are short supply and patients who need transplants go through a careful selection process. Survival rates have improved significantly in last few years, especially in the first year of the transplant. Post-transplant patients can return to their normal levels of activity.
Do You Needs a Heart Transplant?
When the heart failure is due to one of the following reasons:
- Coronary Heart Disease
- Hereditary Conditions
- Viral Infections of the heart
- Damaged Heart Valves and Muscles.
Damage to heart valves and muscles can be due to alcohol, pregnancy, certain medicine or any other potential reason. Mostly if a patient has had a long history of heart problem and continuous deterring heart health.
What To Expect Before a Heart Transplant?
The Heart Transplant Waiting List
There is a long waiting list for donor heart. this waiting list is the part of national allocation system for donor organs. It is a part of national allocation system for donor heart. The organ procurement and transplantation network (OPTN) runs this system.
There are certain policies based on urgency of need, availability of organs, location of patient.
The Donor Heart
Guidelines for how a donor heart is selected require that a donor must meet a legal requirement for brain death and that the correct forms are submitted. People younger than 65year old are allowed to donate a heart and should have little to no history of heart disease or hepatitis or HIV.
Waiting Times
A person may be taken off the list for sometime if he or she has a serious medical event like infection, stroke, kidney or any other health problem. Time spent on the waiting list plays an important role. If there are two patients that have an equal need, the one who has been waiting for a longer time is give preference.
Ongoing Medical Treatment
Patients on the waiting list for a donor to get ongoing treatment for heart failure or other medical condition. Doctors may treat them for arrhythmias, causing sudden cardiac arrest.
Contact with the Transplant Centre During the Wait
A patient on waiting list must contact with their transplant centres. Donor hearts must be transplanted within 4 hours after removal from the donor. Patients get a pager so the center can contact them at any time. They must inform the centre staff if they ae going out of the town. Patients often need to prepared to arrive at the hospital within 2 hours of being notified.
What Are the Risks of a Heart Transplant?
The procedure carries particular risks and careful monitoring, regular medical care and treatment to prevent these risks and problems. The risks of having a heart transplant include:
- Failure of the donor heart
- Complications from medicines
- Infection
- Cancer
- Problems that arise from not following a lifelong care plan after surgery
What are the benefits of Heart Transplant?
A cardiologist will only perform a heart transplant when the risk of operation are much lesser than the positive effect the procedure will cause in a patient’s life. Some of the advantages of having a heart transplant are:
- Heart Transplant cam be the only solution to save a person’s life.
- It reduces a patient’s continual reliance on medicine.
- It provides a person a better quality of life after transplant.
- VAD implantation can allow most people with advanced heart failure to return to fuller life.