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Why it's done
By Mayo Clinic staffHeart transplants are performed when other treatments for heart problems haven't worked, leading to heart failure. In adults, heart failure can be caused by:
- Coronary artery disease
- Cardiomyopathy
- Valvular heart disease
- Congenital heart defect — a heart problem you're born with
- Failure of a previous heart transplant
In children, heart failure is most often caused by a congenital heart defect.
A heart transplant isn't the right treatment for everyone, however. Certain factors may mean you're not a good candidate for a heart transplant. While each case is considered individually by a transplant center, factors that could prevent you from having a heart transplant include:
- Being age 65 or older
- Having another medical condition that could shorten life, regardless of receiving a donor heart
- Poor blood circulation
- Personal medical history of cancer
- Being unwilling or unable to make lifestyle changes necessary to keep your donor heart healthy
- Heart transplant. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/ht/ht_all.html. Accessed Oct. 29, 2008.
- Colucci WS, et al. Indications and contraindications for cardiac transplantation. http://www.uptodate.com/index. Accessed Oct. 27, 2008.
- Hunt SA. Taking heart — Cardiac transplantation past, present, and future. New England Journal of Medicine. 2006;355:231.
- Taylor DO, et al. Registry of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation: Twenty-fourth official adult heart transplant report — 2007. Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. 2007;26:769.
- Jurt U, et al. Heart transplant: What to expect. Circulation. 2002;106:1750.
- Anderson AS. Prognosis after cardiac transplantation. http://www.uptodate.com/index. Accessed Oct. 27, 2008.
- Pina IL. Rehabilitation after cardiac transplantation. http://www.uptodate.com/index. Accessed Oct. 27, 2008.
- Left ventricular assist device. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4599. Accessed Oct. 29, 2008.
