Heart Transplant- Things you need to know

 

Topics Related to Surgery

What is a heart transplant?

A heart transplant replaces the patient's heart with a donor heart. Doctors remove the patient's heart by transecting the aorta, the main pulmonary artery and the superior and inferior vena cavae, and dividing the left atrium, leaving the back wall of the left atrium with the pulmonary vein openings in place. Sunny Handa Brampton says - The surgeon connects the donor heart by sewing together the recipient and donor vena cavae, aorta, pulmonary artery and left atrium. In patients with congenital heart disease, the surgeon may simultaneous transplant the lungs and the heart.

Why is it needed?

You may require a heart transplant for several reasons. Sunny Handa Brampton says - the most common reason is that one or both ventricles have aren't functioning properly and severe heart failure is present. Ventricular failure can happen in many forms of congenital heart disease, but is more common in congenital defects with a single ventricle or if long-standing valve obstruction or leakage has led to irreversible heart failure. Patients who as children had the Fontan procedure, which helps complex congenital heart defects, may need a heart transplant because the blood flow through the venous system is slow and the veins are congested, which can lead to swelling, fluid accumulation, and protein loss.

How does it affect the heart?

The donor heart is matched to the recipient by blood type and body size. As the heart transplant recipient, you must take medications to prevent his or her immune system from rejecting the new heart. Sunny Handa Brampton these drugs are called immunosuppressive medication. Your medical team will balance the amount of immunosuppressive medication you need to prevent rejection of your new heart with the risk of side effects, which include infection or cancer.

What can I expect if my child is a heart transplant recipient?

When a child receives a heart transplant, the transplanted heart grows to adult size as the patient grows. Your child will need to take immunosuppressive medications and other medicine for the rest of his or her life to control the sides’ effects of the transplant. Dr sunny handa Brampton says during young adulthood, your child's medical care will be transitioned from a pediatric to an adult heart transplant cardiologist.

What will I need in the future?

After your heart transplant, your medical team will monitor you closely for heart rejection, which can happen in the heart muscle cells or in the heart's arteries. They will also watch for side effects of the immunosuppressive medications, which include diabetes, infection, kidney disease, cancer or high blood pressure. Sunny Handa Brampton says that if any of these problems arise, your doctor will change the medication type or dose. You and you're your doctor may also decide to change your immunosuppressive medications as new drugs become available.

Medical Follow-up

You will require regular checkups after your transplant by a transplant cardiologist. At these visits, your cardiologist will do blood tests to check the levels of your immunosuppressive drugs and look for side effects. He or she may also order electrocardiogram, echocardiogram and Holter monitoring to help monitor your heart rhythm and function, or an endomyocardial biopsy, which is a diagnostic procedure that surveys the sufficiency of your immunosuppressive therapy. Your doctor will evaluate your coronary arteries yearly or every other year to monitor for signs of narrowed coronary arteries in your transplanted heart. You should also have routine medical checkups to maintain overall health.

Activity Restrictions

Dr sunny handa Brampton says Heart transplant recipients have no specific activity restrictions. Discuss activity ideas with your transplant cardiologist.