Heart Failure Program

Heart Transplant

Heart failure is a condition in which your heart can no longer provide enough blood to keep up with your body’s needs. It can be caused by several different problems, including coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, heart attack or congenital heart problems. In many cases, heart failure can be treated effectively with medications. But, when medications don’t help and symptoms become severe, a heart transplant may need to be considered.

A heart transplant can restore the health and energy you had prior to heart failure. There are many important risks to consider though, and patients requiring a heart transplant may encounter long waits for a donor heart. First, your cardiologist must determine if this surgery is appropriate for you. For instance, you might not be considered a good candidate if you have other serious medical conditions, or if you’re older than 65.

How it works

Waiting for a donor heart to become available can take many months. During this time, your doctors and nurses work with you to help you manage your heart failure. When a donor heart becomes available, you’re notified immediately. The heart transplant must be performed right away, while the donor heart is still healthy. Heart transplant surgery takes four hours or longer.

First, you’re put under general anesthesia and a heart lung machine takes over supplying blood to your body.
Next, your heart is removed and the donor heart is sewn in place.
Donor hearts often start beating on their own. However, in the event that it does not, your surgeon will stimulate it with an electric shock.
Most patients remain in the hospital for seven to fourteen days after a heart transplant.
The recovery period at home takes several months, and requires the support of family and friends.
There are certain medications you will have to take for the rest of your life to prevent your body from rejecting your new heart.
Many patients with heart transplants have lived 10 years or more with their new hearts.

Risks

There are two kinds of risks associated with heart surgery: the risks of the surgery itself, and the risks of living with a new heart.

Infection
Reaction to anesthesia
Rejection of your new heart
Arterial problems
Kidney damage from immunosuppressant drugs
Cancer caused by immunosuppressant drugs
Death

A seasoned team of experts who’ve led their field

UR Medicine Heart & Vascular is the largest and most successful ongoing heart transplant program in upstate New York. We’ve performed more than 200 heart transplants for heart failure patients from throughout the state and northern Pennsylvania since we began our program in 2001. Our outcomes are among the best when compared to other heart transplant centers in the nation. And, as a highly experienced program in a smaller metropolitan area, we’re able to give patients personal attention to help them through the challenging process of receiving a heart transplant.

We also have one of the most experienced teams in the country when it comes to implanting ventricular assist devices (VADs), which can help your own heart keep beating while you wait for a donor heart to become available.

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