Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Heart Transplantation
A heart transplant removes a damaged or diseased heart and replaces it with a healthy one. The healthy heart comes from a donor who has died. It is the last resort for people with heart failure when all other treatments have failed. The heart failure might have been caused by coronary heart disease, damaged heart valves or heart muscles, congenital heart defects, or viral infections of the heart.
Although heart transplant surgery is a life-saving measure, it has many risks. Careful monitoring, treatment, and regular medical care can prevent or help manage some of these risks.
After the surgery, most heart transplant patients can return to their normal levels of activity. However, fewer than 30% return to work for many different reasons.
It sits within Blood, Heart and Circulation and Transplantation and Donation.
The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Heart Transplantation
677 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- Late Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease in Testicular Cancer SurvivorsIndiana University
- Staged Kidney Transplantation During Combined Heart/Kidney TransplantationCedars-Sinai Medical Center
- Belatacept in Heart TransplantationNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
- Evaluation of Cirrhotic Cardiomyopathy by Cardiac MRI in Patients Waiting for Liver Transplant.Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Besancon
- Mobile Video Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) for Immunosuppression Medication Adherence in Adolescent Heart Transplant RecipientsUniversity of Florida
- A Home-Based Exercise Intervention (CAREFit-BMT) in Improving Heart Function Among Patients With High Risk Acute Myeloid Leukemia Undergoing Stem Cell TransplantUniversity of Washington
Research already completed
- Study of Heart Transplant RejectionNational Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)
- Study to Compare the Pharmacokinetics of Tacrolimus in Stable Pediatric Allograft Recipients Converted From Prograf® to Advagraf®Astellas Pharma Europe Ltd.
- Romiplostim in Thoracic TransplantationNantes University Hospital
- Expanding the Pool in Orthotopic Heart TransplantationMary E. Keebler, MD
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- Getting a New HeartAmerican Society of Transplantation
- Heart TreatmentsNational Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Living With
- Cardiac Rehabilitation: MedlinePlus Health TopicNational Library of Medicine
Related Issues
- HeartHealth Resources and Services Administration
- Ventricular Assist Devices (VADS)Texas Heart Institute
- What Is a Total Artificial Heart?National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Statistics and Research
- OPTN/SRTR Annual Data ReportScientific Registry of Transplant Recipients
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Heart TransplantationNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Heart Transplantation. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Heart Transplantation, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.