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Heart Transplant
After a heart transplant, you must follow a strict lifestyle involving daily medicines and regular medical care, which includes regular sampling (biopsies) of the transplanted heart tissue to check for rejection.
You may wait a year or longer for a donor heart. But with maximal medical therapy, more than half of people on waiting lists survive for an extended period of time.
Candidates receive a donor heart according to the:
- Date they were placed on the waiting list.
- Severity of their heart failure symptoms.
There are limited donor hearts available.
Complete the surgery information form (PDF) 
(What is a PDF document?) to help you prepare for this surgery.
| By: | Healthwise Staff | Last Revised: August 9, 2010 |
| Medical Review: | E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine Robert A. Kloner, MD, PhD - Cardiology | |
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