Health Information
Heart Transplant
Surgery Overview
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Reference heart transplant Opens New Window Reference 
Opens New Window is a procedure in which a surgeon removes a diseased heart and
replaces it with a donor heart. During a heart transplant, a mechanical pump
circulates blood through the body while the surgeon removes the diseased heart
and replaces it with a healthy heart from a recently deceased donor.
The surgeon connects the donor heart to the major blood vessels and hooks the heart up to wires that temporarily control the heartbeat. The procedure takes several hours.
To prevent the body from rejecting the donor heart, your surgeon will give you powerful drugs (immunosuppressants) immediately after surgery, and you must continue to take them.
| By: | Reference Healthwise Staff | Last Revised: September 12, 2012 |
| Medical Review: | Reference Rakesh K. Pai, MD, FACC - Cardiology, Electrophysiology
Reference Stephen Fort, MD, MRCP, FRCPC - Interventional Cardiology |
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