Heart Transplant: Procedure

Transcript

Obviously a heart transplant is a surgical procedure. The patient is brought into an operating room, is put under anesthesia on a breathing machine, and then the heart is taken out and a donor heart is placed in its place. The vessels are then connected to one another, drains are put in the chest, and then the patient is closed and put back in the ICU on the breathing machine with drains in place. The patient would be in the ICU for two to three days minimum, and then the patient will be extubated, then kept in the hospital for up to two to three weeks as an inpatient.