What is Heart Transplant?
Shikha SaxenaMay 22, 2019·2 min read
Ever wondered what exactly is heart transplant? Heart Transplant is the cardiac surgery or a heart surgery to replace defective or diseased heart with the one of deceased donor (brain dead) who might still on life support machines.
In heart transplant the heart of a patient with less functioning heart or with end stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease, is replaced with the actively functioning heart of the deceased donor who is brain dead but on life support .
Transplant surgeons may now use a device to “reanimate” hearts outside the body of deceased person. Donated heart can beat outside the body with ample supply of blood and oxygen. The hearts received from the process of Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) have better performance than those of brain dead donors.
Heart Transplant is a cardiac transplant or heart surgery which is performed on end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease patients. It is performed when all other surgical and medical methods to save such patient are failed.
Steps involved in Heart Transplant
This takes place in three steps:
- While surgeons work on the patient’s heart, the blood flows through a heart-lung bypass machine.
- While patient’s diseased heart is removed and heart of donor is stitched in place of it.
- Various tubes are inserted into patient’s body to outflow and drain the fluids, air and the blood, of body, till lungs gradually expand and regain the full working volume.
Most of the heart transplants are done by method called orthotopic , cardiac transplantation, where most of the patient heart is removed and the donor heart is stitched into its place .
The front half of the donor heart is stitched to the back half of the old heart. Then donor’s aorta and pulmonary arteries are connected to patients respective tubules.
Data shows that 75% of patients survive 5 years after successful surgery! Around 85% patients enjoy healthy working lifestyle after surgery!
Risk after heart transplant
As after the heart transplant procedure patient’s immune system is little weak, it may succumb to following incidents, if proper care measures are avoided:
- Infection.
- Bleeding through surgery wounds internally, which can lead to blood clots and choking of lungs and/or consequent heart attack.
- Breathing problems.
- Kidney failures.
- Rejection of donor heart by patient’s immune system.
Precautions must be observed to avoid above mentioned risks.
Caretakers and people close to patient should know the basics and develop an understanding, to report any symptoms immediately to increase patient survival rate after surgery.
Originally published at https://www.dnabox.co on May 22, 2019.Shikha Saxena
A Technical Writer, an artist and blogger by choice. Passionate about reading , writing and editing. http://www.shikhasaxena.com and https://www.dnabox.co/SHIKHA SAXENA FOLLOWS
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