- Emergency
- Coronary heart disease.
- Valvular heart disease.
- Diseases of the thoracic vessels.
- Arrhythmias.
- Transplantation.
- Heart transplant
- Indications.
- Organ donation.
- Guidelines for organ mediation.
- Inclusion on the waiting list.
- Examinations before inclusion on the waiting list.
- Regular check-ups prior to transplantation.
- The heart transplant call.
- The transplantation.
- The first days after the transplant.
- Postoperative immunosuppression.
- Other medications.
- Medication times.
- Postoperative complications and rejection reactions.
- Complications due to infections.
- Check-ups.
- How do I do things correctly.
- Lung transplantation.
- Combined transplantation.
- Heart transplant
Heart diseases that can necessitate transplantation
- Heart enlargement due to dilated cardiomyopathy
The heart muscle can be affected by various diseases. “Ischaemic cardiomyopathy" is a disease of the heart muscle due to undersupply of oxygen. This disease can arise, for example, as a result of untreated high blood pressure or diabetes, smoking, raised blood fats (hyperlipidaemia), as a side effect of medications or due to a genetic handicap.
In contrast, in many cases there is acquired weakness of the heart muscle tissue due to infection of the heart muscle or excessive alcohol consumption, which is known as “dilated cardiomyopathy“. In these cases, the heart gradually gets bigger, the walls of the heart become thinner and the force of contraction becomes weaker and weaker.
These two indications (ischaemic and dilated cardiomyopathy) are the main reasons for a heart transplant (over 90 percent of cases). Other causes are malfunction of the heart valves that has gone untreated for many years with subsequent enlargement of the heart or severe congenital heart defects that cannot be corrected surgically.