Type of Surgery
Information
Last updated: 11/24/2009
BOOKS
Bellenir, Karen, and Peter D. Dresser, eds. Cardiovascular Diseases and Disorders Sourcebook. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1995.
Texas Heart Institute. Heart Owner's Handbook. New York: John Wiley and Sons,...
1996.
Rother, Anne L., and Charles D. Collard. "Anesthetic Management for Cardiac Transplantation." In A Practical Approach to Cardiac Anesthesia, 3rd edition, edited by Frederick A. Hensley, Donald E. Martin, and Glenn P. Gravlee. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2003.
ORGANIZATIONS
American Council on Transplantation. P.O. Box 1709, Alexandria, VA 22313. (800) ACT-GIVE.
Health Services and Resources Administration, Division of Organ Transplantation. Room 11A-22, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857.
United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). 1100 Boulders Parkway, Suite 500, P.O. Box 13770, Richmond, VA 23225-8770. (804) 330-8500.
OTHER
Craven, John, and Susan Farrow. "Surviving Transplantation."SupportNET Publications, 1996-1997.
"Facts About Heart and Heart/Lung Transplants."NationalHeart, Lung, and Blood Institute, November 27, 1998 [cited March 3, 1998].
"What Every Patient Needs to Know."United Network forOrgan Sharing (UNOS).
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This 3D animation explains how the heart muscle contracts to pump blood throughout the body. The action of cells at the microscopic level affects the function of the entire cardiovascular system, as the video explains.
For a heart transplantation, the area around the heart is exposed through a chest incision (A). The blood vessels leading to the heart are clamped, and the heart function is replaced by a heart-lung machine. The diseased heart is removed (B). The donor heart is placed in the chest, and the left atrium is attached (C). The right atrium is connected (D), and the aorta and pulmonary artery are finally attached (E). (Illustration by GGS Inc.)
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Other Information
Heart transplantation or cardiac transplantation, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease. The most common procedure is to take a working heart from a recently deceased organ donor (allograft) and implant it into the patient. The patient's own heart may either be removed (orthotopic procedure) or, less commonly, left in to support the donor heart (heterotopic procedure). It is also possible to take a heart from another species (xenograft), or implant a man-made artificial one, although the outcome of these two procedures has been less successful in comparison to the far more commonly performed Bold textallografts.
Other Information
Heart surgery is quite a big event and people are keen to know about their particular surgeon.
-Andy Owens
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