Heart Transplantation (Adult)

Your Michigan Answer for Heart Transplant

It’s hard to hear that you or a loved one will need a heart transplant. By this point, you may have tried a lot of different treatments and seen several specialists. The questions and worries can feel endless.  

When your heart can’t pump the blood your body needs to function properly, and all other possible treatments have failed, a heart transplant may be the best treatment option. This procedure includes removing your heart and replacing it with a healthy donor heart. Heart transplants replace hearts that are damaged by serious injury, illness or health conditions. 

For life-saving care, you can trust the transplant team at the University of Michigan Health Frankel Cardiovascular Center, home to the nation’s top Cardiology, Heart & Vascular Surgery programs. Since 1984, we’ve performed more than 1200 heart transplants. Today, we use advanced technology to accept more donor hearts than ever before. That means shorter wait times for our patients. 

Through our TransMedics Organ Care system, we can preserve hearts over longer distances and source donors from a larger area. We also use postoperative treatments to accept donors with active hepatitis C infection and strategies that allow us to accept transplants from donors who have suffered irreversible brain injuries. 

We personalize our care for each person living with advanced heart disease. Our advanced treatment options include oral heart failure medications, intravenous inotropes and ventricular assist devices (VADs) that can delay the need for a heart transplant and/or prolong life while waiting for a donor heart. We also work with combination transplant patients and can perform both heart/kidney transplants and heart/liver transplants.

Start your heart transplant journey, and have hope again, with U-M Health by your side.