Heart Transplant is the last resort for patients who are suffering from chronic or congenital heart diseases. This medical procedure is generally used when other treatments or procedures are not giving fruitful or any positive results.
A heart transplant is a major surgery where the chances of survival are up to 85% and the patient can be put back to normal with blood flow better than ever if the follow-up appointments are attended efficiently.
The eligibility of the patient depends on age, lifestyle, and current situation. The patients suffering from cardiomyopathy, heart valve disease, abnormal heart rhythms, coronary artery disease, or failure of previous heart transplantations. The patients are not eligible candidates for a heart transplant if they-
Have a medical history of cancer.
Have an infection that can infect the newly transplanted heart.
Are suffering from other chronic diseases.
Not able to make necessary lifestyle changes, and other reasons.
Your preparation of the treatment purely depends on the waiting time period of finding a donor. Before that, you can leave smoking, if you do so that your organ transplant does not get affected.
You will be on a waiting list to get your transplant done but you should be ready at all times as you can get a donor anytime soon and you may have to rush to your hospital as most hearts should be transplanted within 4 hours of removal from the donor.
After you get to the hospital, immediate surgery will be performed before checking your health status, if you are fit for the surgery or not or if the heart is suitable for transplant.
The treatment involves open surgery and may take around 4-10 hours for completion. The hours may increase if you have had previous surgeries related to the heart.
You will be put under general anesthesia and will be connected to a lung-heart bypass machine.
Your surgeon will cut open your chest and breast bone to reach and operate your heart.
Your diseased heart will be replaced with the donor’s heart and will be connected to each blood vessel carefully.
A few shocks might be given to the newly replaced heart to start working and your surgeon may also connect a few wires to your heart and attach a pacemaker for the initial few days.
The sutures will be made in the end and suitable bandages will be applied.
For the first week or two, you will be placed in the intensive care unit and after that, you will be moved to the general nursing units for a few weeks.
You can be discharged as per your recovery rate.
You will be monitored for a few months for the signs of organ rejection or infection around the area of surgery.
You will also be required to go through heart biopsies in the initial few months of transplant to check the health of the transplanted heart.
You will have to take immunosuppressant drugs to suppress your immune system to save you from the rejection of the organ. These may last for your whole life.
Cardiac rehabilitation is the safest option to make your heart healthy over time and thereby increasing the survival rate.
Discuss your diet and nutrition plan with a nutrition specialist.
Exercise is another thing that you will have to follow all your life for proper blood flow and management of stress.
Some of the many risks of heart transplant include- Infection around the surgery. Formation of blood clots. Failure of Kidney. Failure of donor’s heart. Death.
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