When does a person need a heart transplant?

A heart may be irreversibly damaged by long-lasting heart disease or viral infection. People with long-term heart failure, heart muscle disease, or other irreversible heart injury from coronary artery disease and multiple heart attacks that can't be treated by any other medical or surgical means may be candidates for heart transplants.

When the heart no longer can adequately work and a person is at risk of dying, a heart transplant may be indicated. It involves removing a diseased heart and replacing it with a healthy human heart. Cardiac transplantation is recognized as a proven procedure in appropriately selected patients.

How many people need and receive heart transplants?

• There were 2,163 heart transplants performed in the United States in 2008 and 2,210 in 2007.
• Each year thousands more adults would benefit from a heart transplant if more donated hearts were available.
• In the United States, 72.4 percent of heart transplant patients are male; 65.5 percent are white; 19.4 percent are ages 35–49 and 54.2 percent are age 50 or older.
• As of June 5, 2009, the one-year survival rate was 88.0 percent for males and 77.2 percent for females; the three-year survival rate was about 79.3 percent for males and 77.2 percent for females. The five-year survival rate was 73.1 percent for males and 67.4 percent for females. 

See the Related Items box above for links to the Cardiology Patient Page in Circulation, Journal of the American Heart Association:

• Heart Transplant: What to Expect

Related AHA publications:

• About Heart Transplants 
• Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update