Heart Transplant for Advanced Heart Failure: A Review.

Heart transplant offers a 91.5% one-year survival rate for carefully selected adults with advanced heart failure in the US.

• Why it matters: Despite optimal therapy, 4% to 5% of over 6 million US adults with heart failure develop advanced disease, highlighting the need for effective treatments like transplant.
• What they did: The review discusses criteria for early referral using the "I NEED HELP" mnemonic, contraindications, transplant procedures, immunosuppression, rejection management, and long-term complications in approximately 4,600 US transplants annually.
• The result: Lifelong multidisciplinary care post-transplant is essential to manage immunosuppression, prevent rejection and vasculopathy, and monitor for infections and malignancies, enabling improved survival and quality of life.