Heart Transplant Program

Heart transplant consultation at Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic's heart transplant doctors and surgeons use proven innovations to successfully treat people with congestive heart failure and other serious heart diseases. Their experience in using advanced technology, specialized procedures and an integrated approach focused on the patient makes Mayo Clinic a leader in transplant outcomes.

Experts in heart and lung surgery (cardiac and thoracic surgeons) perform nearly 160 heart transplants a year at Mayo Clinic's campuses in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota. People turn to Mayo Clinic for help with a wide range of heart diseases. And some come to Mayo Clinic Transplant Center for its expertise in multiorgan transplants and a rare condition called amyloidosis. Each year, Mayo Clinic doctors see 1,600 people with this condition, some of whom may benefit from a heart transplant.

Mayo Clinic's experts focus on your needs, bringing to your situation the strength of their:

• Experience. Mayo Clinic's heart transplant team is recognized nationally and internationally for its expertise in comprehensive specialty treatment for people with serious heart disease. Mayo Clinic has one of the largest and most experienced practices in the United States. Doctors trained in all types of transplantation have experience treating people with complex conditions who may need multiorgan transplants, including heart-lung, heart-liver, heart-kidney and heart-lung-liver transplants.

• Teamwork. A multidisciplinary team of doctors and health care professionals provide you with comprehensive care and the most appropriate treatment. This team may include Mayo Clinic doctors trained in transplantation, heart and lung surgery (cardiac and thoracic surgeons), heart and blood vessel diseases (cardiologists), infectious diseases, mental health conditions (psychiatrists), and other areas. Doctors trained in treating children with heart conditions (pediatric cardiologists) evaluate and treat children at Mayo Clinic's campus in Minnesota.

  An example of Mayo Clinic's unique multidisciplinary approach to teamwork occurred in 2016 when the heart transplant team at Mayo Clinic's Arizona campus successfully completed two heart transplants simultaneously. That meant two separate transplant teams were needed to procure the donor hearts, and two separate teams of surgeons and physician assistants were needed for the transplant surgeries. Both patients had been on a ventricular assist device that kept their hearts pumping until a matching heart would be available.

  The Transplant Center staff members at Mayo Clinic's campuses in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota share the same high standards and a commitment to individualized care. They work together to evaluate and treat people who may need a heart transplant. So you could be evaluated at one location and undergo surgery at another, if it's in your best interest.

• Specialized skills. Mayo Clinic cardiologists and heart transplant surgeons advance the science and clinical practice related to many aspects of heart transplant, including multiorgan transplants and novel use of immunosuppressive (anti-rejection) drugs to improve outcomes.

  People being evaluated for serious heart conditions receive individualized care and offered all appropriate treatment options. If it's right for you, your doctor will discuss bridges to transplant or alternatives to transplant, such as medical therapy and cardiac assist devices. For example, in 2010 a patient at Mayo Clinic's campus in Arizona was the first person in the United States to go home on a total artificial heart. This helped him cope while awaiting a donor heart.

• Innovative research. Mayo Clinic scientists and doctors are committed to expanding and sharing knowledge that makes transplants safer and improves patients' lives. And they research techniques that help people avoid transplant altogether, such as the ventricular assist device.

  At Mayo Clinic, you may have access to ongoing clinical trials and new treatments.

  Every day the Transplant Research Center brings together surgeons, cardiologists, pulmonologists, hematologists, experts in human cell therapy, and scientists from many other fields and institutions to collaborate. For example, Mayo Clinic is a leader in researching genetics and new treatments for congenital heart disease, including hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Read more about this work of the Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.

Mayo Clinic surgeons perform heart transplants at Mayo Clinic's campuses in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota. Heart transplant in children is provided at Mayo Clinic's pediatric heart transplant program in Rochester, Minnesota. At Mayo Clinic's campus in Arizona, doctors trained in heart diseases (cardiologists) partner with Phoenix Children's Hospital to treat teenagers and young adults with congenital heart defects.

Services

The heart transplant care team at Mayo Clinic collaborates so that every patient gets exactly the care he or she needs.

Mayo Clinic heart doctors and surgeons work with a multidisciplinary team to ensure you get exactly the care you need. These experts treat people in many areas of heart transplantation, including those listed below. Not all services are available at each of Mayo Clinic's three campuses, in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota. Please confirm when you call for an appointment.

• Ventricular assist device (VAD)
• Heart transplant
• Optical coherence tomography, an imaging technique that can be used to spot warning signs after a heart transplant
• Treatment of complex heart conditions
• Amyloidosis expertise
• Heart transplant for children
• Cardiac rehabilitation
• Multiorgan transplant

Heart transplant surgeons are experts in a range of complex procedures.