What Is Heart Transplant Surgery?

Doctors will first try to manage heart failure through medications or electrical devices. However, when the heart failure becomes severe, the patient might need a new heart. Heart transplant surgery is the process of replacing a diseased heart with a healthy donor heart.

Heart transplant surgery: Why choose us

For patients with end-stage heart failure, a heart transplant procedure offers hope. When you turn to Stanford Health Care, you are choosing one of the top transplant clinics in the region. Features of our care include:

  • Experience: Our transplant clinic performs between 40-50 heart transplants every year, giving us a superior level of experience and expertise.
  • Wide range of patients: Our patients range in age and have almost every type of severe heart condition.
  • Support: We are here to provide you and your family with all the support and education you need during this life-changing journey.
  • Recovery: Your care doesn't end after your surgery. We will monitor you closely and follow up with you as you adjust to life with your new heart.
Stanford Heart-Lung Transplant: Steve Rasmussen's story
Play Video | 3:57
Stanford Heart-Lung Transplant: Steve Rasmussen's story
Steve Rasmussen was diagnosed at age 3 with cystic fibrosis, a disease that causes the lungs to produce an abnormal amount of mucous. When Rasmussen was 28, doctors began to talk about transplant—and not just lungs, but a heart, too. Steve Rasmussen became Stanford's 50th heart-lung transplant—and on April 1, 2013, he celebrated 25 years since the surgery. Full story: http://stanfordhospital.org/newsEvents/newsReleases/2014/patient-story-heart-lung-transplant.html

Heart transplant: Conditions treated

In addition to heart failure, a heart transplant can provide a long-term solution for a number of severe or chronic heart conditions, including:

Learn more about other conditions treated with heart transplant.

Heart transplant surgery: What to expect

When a donor heart becomes available for you, the transplant process begin. The transplant team removes the donor heart, placing it in a special ice solution to keep it cool. We then remove the diseased heart and reconnect your new heart to the blood vessels to restore blood flow throughout the body. Learn more about:

Heart transplant FAQs

If you or a loved one is undergoing a heart transplant surgery, you probably have many questions. Your transplant team is always available to discuss your transplant with you and answer any questions. We have also compiled a helpful list of FAQs. Read some of our patient’s most frequently asked questions about heart transplant.

Contact us

Contact our Heart Transplant Program to learn more:

Heart Transplant Program
650-723-5468

Heart Transplant Program

We advance new techniques in heart transplant surgery with the accumulated wisdom of more than fifty years of research and patient care experience.
Boswell Building
300 Pasteur Drive
Stanford, CA 94305
Phone: 650-723-5468
Visit Clinic