University of Wisconsin Cardiovascular Surgery: Heart Transplantation

Heart Transplantation

Introduction

UW Health offers a comprehensive heart transplant program for patients with end-stage heart disease. Patients with chronic heart failure receive individual evaluations by our heart failure cardiologists and transplant team. This multidisciplinary team follows patients throughout the entire transplant process.

Our program also has excellent results providing ventricular assist devices (VADs) for patients awaiting transplant. If a patient’s heart function deteriorates before transplant, these devices take over the function of supplying blood to the body. Patients with end-stage heart failure benefit from the connection between our VAD program and our transplant program.

Since our program began in 1973, over 550 patients have been offered a second chance of life through heart transplantation. The strength of our organ procurement team and the experience of our medical team have enabled us to become a high-volume transplant center.

Proof of our program's effectiveness can be seen in statistics comparing the performance of UW Health with all other transplant programs in the United States.

Our team’s experience, commitment, and success have made UW Health’s heart transplant program a national leader.