Heart and Lung Transplant (cont.)
IN THIS ARTICLE
- Heart and Lung Transplant Overview
- Heart and Lung Transplant Causes
- Heart and Lung Transplant Symptoms
- When to Seek Medical Care
- Exams and Tests
- Heart and Lung Transplant Treatment
- Self-Care at Home
- Medical Treatment
- Medications
- Next Steps
- Follow-up
- Prevention
- Outlook
- For More Information
- Web Links
- Synonyms and Keywords
- Authors and Editors
Heart and Lung Transplant Causes
The most common indication for heart transplantation is severe end-stage heart failure, which means the heart cannot pump blood well enough to reach all tissues in the body. People who receive heart transplants get them only when their failing hearts do not respond to medicines or other surgical treatments. Several conditions lead to heart failure, including the following:
- Ischemia, or lack of oxygenated blood to the heart (coronary heart disease), leading to heart attack and permanently damaged heart muscle
- Heart valve disease, such as with damage from rheumatic fever
- Infections of heart tissue, especially heart valves
- Untreated, uncontrolled high blood pressure
- Heart muscle disease, secondary to multiple causes
- Congenital heart defects (certain heart defects that an individual is born with)
- Certain drugs
The most common reason people get lung transplants is for chronic obstructive lung diseases such as emphysema. Other people are born with conditions that cause their lungs to fail, such as the following:
- Cystic fibrosis
- Eisenmenger syndrome, which is due to unoperated congenital heart defects
- Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
- Primary pulmonary hypertension - High pressure in the arteries (of unknown cause) that supply blood to the lungs
- Alpha1 antitrypsin deficiency
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Heart-Lung Transplantation »
Cardiopulmonary transplantation (heart and lung transplantation) is the simultaneous surgical replacement of the heart and lungs in patients with end-stage cardiac and pulmonary disease.

