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Heart transplantation
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<p>A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplant, is a <a href="/facts/Surgery/fG8tWf5Y">surgical</a> <a href="/facts/Organ_transplant/1jNvVJn6">transplant</a> procedure performed on patients with end-stage <a href="/facts/Heart_failure/7fckX3Jm">heart failure</a> when other medical or surgical treatments have failed. As of 2018, the most common procedure is to take a functioning <a href="/facts/Heart/fF4KSGdk">heart</a> from a recently deceased <a href="/facts/Organ_donor/wgHzQ3c4">organ donor</a> (<a href="/facts/Brain_death/zlYDv4fG">brain death</a> is the most common) and implant it into the patient. The patient's own heart is either removed and replaced with the donor heart (<a href="/facts/List_of_orthotopic_procedures/M5pwe7LG">orthotopic procedure</a>) or, much less commonly, the recipient's diseased heart is left in place to support the donor heart (heterotopic, or "piggyback", transplant procedure). </p><p>Approximately 5,000 heart transplants are performed each year worldwide, more than half of which are in the US. Post-operative survival periods average 15 years. Heart transplantation is not considered to be a cure for heart disease; rather it is a life-saving treatment intended to improve the quality and duration of life for a recipient. </p>