Sometimes the heart is irreversibly damaged by long-lasting heart disease or viral infection of the heart. Adults with long-term heart failure, heart muscle disease, or other irreversible heart injury from coronary artery disease and multiple heart attacks that can't be treated by any other medical or surgical means may be candidates for heart transplants. When the heart no longer can adequately work and a person is at risk of dying, a heart transplant may be indicated. It involves removing a diseased heart and replacing it with a healthy human heart.
Cardiac transplantation is recognized as a proven procedure in appropriately selected patients.
There were 2,340 heart transplants performed in the United States in 1998 and 2,290 in 1997. Each year an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 Americans would benefit from a heart transplant. Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited.