Our Adult and Pediatric Heart Transplant Program
Our team saves lives by implanting new organs and ventricular assist devices.
A Recognized Leader
If you have heart failure, our advanced heart failure and heart transplant team is ready to provide the best possible care. That might mean medical management, such as stabilizing your heart with a ventricular assist device (VAD), or by moving ahead with a heart transplant as rapidly as possible.
Our multidisciplinary team focuses on saving the lives of children and adults, and on restoring the heart to its best possible functioning. We also collaborate with Jackson Health System’s cardiac surgeons and cardiologists to address other serious problems related to the heart.
Since 1986, our team has performed hundreds of heart transplants. We can also do some of the most complex multi-organ transplants, such as heart and liver, and heart-lung-liver procedures.
The Miami Transplant Institute is a recognized leader in these life-saving procedures:
A Recognized Leader
If you have heart failure, our advanced heart failure and heart transplant team is ready to provide the best possible care. That might mean medical management, such as stabilizing your heart with a ventricular assist device (VAD), or by moving ahead with a heart transplant as rapidly as possible.
Our multidisciplinary team focuses on saving the lives of children and adults, and on restoring the heart to its best possible functioning. We also collaborate with Jackson Health System’s cardiac surgeons and cardiologists to address other serious problems related to the heart.
Since 1986, our team has performed hundreds of heart transplants. We can also do some of the most complex multi-organ transplants, such as heart and liver, and heart-lung-liver procedures.
The Miami Transplant Institute is a recognized leader in these life-saving procedures:
Advanced Heart Failure
Heart transplants are not the only therapy for heart failure, which claims tens of thousands of lives every year. Patients who have been hospitalized several times for heart failure should consider a transplant or a VAD. In the past, VADs have been used on a temporary basis until a donor heart becomes available. However, our team now offers this mechanical support option as a long-term alternative to transplantation for patients who may not qualify for a heart transplant or for whom a VAD works so well, a transplant becomes unnecessary.
Ventricular Assist Devices
We have been at the forefront of advancing the clinical use of VADs in patients with advanced heart failure, and we have participated in clinical trials for many of the newest devices, thereby helping make them available for patients. Patients with VADs also have a higher quality of life and fewer complications compared with traditional medical therapy. Miami Transplant Institute is one of the few centers in the U.S. to implant these devices in children of any age. We are also pioneers of total artificial hearts for selected patients for whom VADs are not effective in order to help patients survive until transplantation.
In all these ways, our heart transplant program is saving lives while leading the way into the future.
Description
Advanced Heart Failure
Heart transplants are not the only therapy for heart failure, which claims tens of thousands of lives every year. Patients who have been hospitalized several times for heart failure should consider a transplant or a VAD. In the past, VADs have been used on a temporary basis until a donor heart becomes available. However, our team now offers this mechanical support option as a long-term alternative to transplantation for patients who may not qualify for a heart transplant or for whom a VAD works so well, a transplant becomes unnecessary.
Ventricular Assist Devices
We have been at the forefront of advancing the clinical use of VADs in patients with advanced heart failure, and we have participated in clinical trials for many of the newest devices, thereby helping make them available for patients. Patients with VADs also have a higher quality of life and fewer complications compared with traditional medical therapy. Miami Transplant Institute is one of the few centers in the U.S. to implant these devices in children of any age. We are also pioneers of total artificial hearts for selected patients for whom VADs are not effective in order to help patients survive until transplantation.
In all these ways, our heart transplant program is saving lives while leading the way into the future.
No other center in South Florida has more experience in treating the most advanced forms of heart failure like our team at Miami Transplant Institute.
Our pediatric VAD program can support patients of any age.
VADs have proven to have higher survival rates and better quality of life than medical therapy in patients with advanced heart failure.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if I need a heart transplant?
A multidisciplinary team of cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, and transplant specialists can evaluate your heart condition and outline your treatment options so that you can make a well-informed decision.
What conditions can lead to heart failure?
There are many conditions that may require a life-saving organ transplant or mechanical support, including congenital heart disease, coronary artery disease, heart valve disease, or ischemic cardiomyopathy.
What happens if I have been approved for transplantation?
You will be placed on the recipient wait list of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). Heart recipients are matched to potential donors according to blood type, tissue type, and waiting time on the list.
Are these procedures painful?
Patients are under sedation for the procedure, but may experience discomfort for a period of time afterward.
How long does it take to recover?
Depending on the procedure, you may be able to resume normal daily activities in several weeks.
Will I need further treatment?
Yes. Transplant patients will require ongoing medical care, including regular follow-up checkups, in order to monitor the health of the transplanted heart, as well as their overall health.
