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What Is a Heart Transplant?

If heart muscle has been badly damaged and does not respond to treatment, a person may need a heart transplant. This is a very serious operation. A heart transplant is used only when a person's own heart is likely to fail, causing death. In a heart transplant, the defective heart is replaced with a healthy heart from a donor who has recently died.

Normally a person's body fights off foreign substances. Human tissue from another person is viewed as a foreign substance. It is important, then, that the new heart has a similar tissue makeup to the heart patient's.

When a patient's heart disease is bad enough that a heart transplant seems necessary, a donor bank is notified of a need for a new heart. The donor bank tracks all the people who need transplants, along with all hearts available for donation. Usually the donated heart comes from someone who has died in an accident.

There are more people who need a new heart than there are hearts that can be used. A computer matches the donated heart to the person who would benefit the most. The match is based on how compatible the tissues are and on the severity of the illness of the heart patient.

After surgery, the patient will need to take medicine for the rest of his life to keep his body from rejecting the new heart. Even with a similar tissue match, the body still treats the new heart as a foreign substance.

Disclaimer: This content is reviewed periodically and is subject to change as new health information becomes available. The information provided is intended to be informative and educational and is not a replacement for professional medical evaluation, advice, diagnosis or treatment by a healthcare professional. HIL File CARD4291.RF2 VRS# 6101 Data Version 7.0
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