Heart Transplant (cont.)
Why aren't more heart transplants done?
Cost is one reason why more heart transplants aren't done. The cost is always
at least a few hundred thousand dollars. Not all insurers will pay for heart
transplant. The longer the recipient lives, the more expensive the
transplant. Of course, if the heart lasts longer, the benefit is also
greater to the patient and to society. It's also not easy to qualify for a heart
transplant. One has to have a very bad heart but an otherwise healthy body.
However, the major limiting factor is the availability of donor hearts. For many
reasons, individuals and families refuse to donate organs that could be
life-saving to others. Sometimes, even when an organ is available, there is no
good match. Other times, there is no way to get the heart to a suitable
recipient in time for the organ to still be viable.
What is the future of heart transplant?
There are several ways to help patients with end-stage heart disease. One is
to get more donors for heart transplant. This will require teaching people
the benefits of transplantation in hope of changing society's attitudes. Better
methods of preserving organs and preventing and treating rejection are
constantly being developed. In the end, however, there will never be enough
donor hearts. Indeed, artificial hearts already exist but have a limited life-span. Patients with artificial hearts are at high risk of developing
infection and blood clots related to the device. Better devices are being
developed all the time. What about the use of animal organs, also called
xenotransplantation? These organs are too "foreign" and thus the problems with
rejection are currently insurmountable.
Last Editorial Review: 7/31/2007
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