In a number of patients with advanced heart disease, the doctors may
advise a heart transplant. This operation involves removing the patient’s
own diseased heart and replacing it with a healthy heart from a suitable
donor. This procedure is carried out in a few centres in the UK which have
specialised in transplantation.
Tremendous progress has been made in heart transplant procedures.
The problems of the patient’s body rejecting the transplanted heart have
been helped greatly by new drugs, including Cyclosporin. More recently,
combined heart and lung transplants have been carried out in patients whose
heart condition is associated with severe lung abnormalities.