Multi-Organ Transplant Program

Adult Heart Transplant

Patients who need heart transplants have one common characteristic - they are suffering from heart failure as a result of advanced heart disease. For these patients, transplantation is the only hope for survival as medical therapy or conventional heart surgery is no longer helpful. Without a heart transplant, survival will be limited to one or two years. Transplantation is performed for many heart conditions, but these are two of the most common heart diseases leading to transplantation:

• coronary artery disease (narrowing or hardening of the coronary arteries) and
• cardiomyopathy (weakening of the heart muscle)

Other disorders, such as heart valve diseases, congenital defects, and viral infections, can also weaken the heart and may lead to transplantation.

Treatment for Heart Failure

When heart failure occurs, patients have some treatment options including medication management, surgery, or heart transplantation. A successful heart transplant is the preferred treatment for suitable patients with advanced heart disease. Heart transplantation offers patients the potential of living independent, active lives.

Heart Transplant Operation

Transplant surgery usually takes six to eight hours. The patient is placed on a cardiopulmonary bypass machine while the surgeon works to remove most of the patient's own (native) heart. The patient's native posterior walls of both atria of the heart are left in place. The new heart is inserted and is attached to the remaining heart tissue and blood vessels.

Quality of Life

Many heart transplant recipients are alive more than 10 years later. Sometimes, coronary artery disease may develop after a transplant and some patients eventually need a second transplant. Most heart transplant recipients return to normal, active lives and report that they are satisfied with the quality of their lives. Our transplant program has performed more than 500 heart transplants with a success rate between 80-85 per cent.

Cardiologists are members of the Heart Transplant Team, providing care for our patients.

Patient Handbook

Click here to read a more detailed handbook about the heart transplant program.

Contact Information

Recipient Coordinator: Grant Fisher, 519.685.8500 ext. 33760