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Penn Transplant Institute

Heart

• About Our Program
• About Our Team
• Heart Transplant Process
  • Transplant Evaluation
  • Before Transplant
  • Transplant Procedure
  • After Transplant
• Outcomes
• Clinical Trials
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Before Heart Transplant

Listing for Transplant

If the heart transplant team decides that transplant is the best option and the patients agree, patients are “listed for transplant.” This involves being placed on the national waiting list maintained by the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS). Information such as blood type, body size and clinical status is entered into the waiting list database.

For those awaiting a donor heart, there are four UNOS status classifications based on condition:

• Status 1A or ‘urgent need’
  Requiring intensive care hospitalization, life support measures, certain intravenous drugs or mechanical-assist devices.
• Status 1B
  Dependent on intravenous medications or a mechanical-assist device – in the hospital or at home.
• Status 2
  Stable on oral medications and able to wait at home.
• Status 7 or ‘inactive list’
  Inactive due to a change in condition – patients do not lose time they have already accrued.

Further information about being a donor, transplant and the waiting system can be found on the United Network for Organ Sharing: Organ Donation and Transplantation website.

Waiting for Transplant

The waiting period can last anywhere from days to months and – in some cases – years, depending on listing status. The availability of a donor with matching blood type and body size also affects the wait time. During this wait, patients must notify the team if they are planning an extended trip away from their home. Patients are encouraged to give current contact phone numbers, including cell phones numbers.

It is important for patients who are listed and waiting for a transplant to make arrangements for transportation to the hospital. Usually, patients have two to three hours to get to the hospital. In very rare circumstances, time constraints may require travel by ambulance or helicopter.

Communicating with physicians

Most heart transplant patients are referred to Penn by their cardiologist or primary care physician. The Penn Transplant Institute values these relationships patients have with their physicians. When patients are listed for transplant, information is sent to their physicians about the transplant process and ongoing communication is maintained with the physicians as patients receive their care at Penn.

 

 

For more information, please view our patient guide.