Solution For All Heart Problems
It is not a solution for all heart problems, obviously. In fact, only be carried out in a very small number of patients who are less than 55-60 years, with some very specific heart diseases that limit their life expectancy dramatically, no more than 2 or 3 years, have all other vital organs in good condition (particularly the kidneys, liver and lungs), which are very emotionally stable and have a very helpful family.
PROCEDURE
This is first find a donor heart, which usually come from a healthy person killed in accident, no injuries that affect the heart. The donor heart is transported in a special solution with all possible speed to the recipient patient, whose chest cavity is already open and diseased heart. The new body is placed on the site of the former. Transplantation, like all major surgery of the heart, is done under general anesthesia and surgery usually lasts several hours, during part of which, the function of the heart and lungs must be assumed by one-lung machine.
REJECTION
In many organ transplants, immune system occurs that the receiver recognizes the transplanted tissue as foreign or alien to itself, and makes antibodies to attack the “invader.” Therefore, after organ transplants must take drugs that suppress the normal immune response (immunosuppressants), and some of them for life. Given that lower the body’s ability to recognize and resist infection, individual doses should be adjusted carefully.
RECOVERY
When a successful heart transplant, most recipients are restored to live a relatively normal life. About 80% of them live actively within a year, and some recipients have lived more than a decade after the transplant.
In any case, the procedure is complicated, and to succeed requires a well organized team of specialists in transplantation and a motivated patient. In almost all cases, we must continue to see members of the transplant team for life, for the careful adjustment of individual doses of drugs, treatment for complications and even biopsies to monitor heart possibility of rejection.
Therefore, heart transplantation is a solution only in cases where it is the only hope of life and where there are real chances of success.