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Heart Transplant Center - Sioux City, IA

Sioux City Cardiothoracic Surgeon Doctors for Heart Transplant

Type of Physician: Cardiothoracic Surgeon

What is a Cardiothoracic Surgeon?

A certification by the Board of Thoracic Surgery; practitioners are skilled in patient care before, during and after surgery, and the critical care of patients with pathologic conditions within the chest. The management of the airway and injuries of the chest is within the scope of the specialty.

Specialty: Cardiothoracic Surgery

Common Name: Chest Surgeon

Cardiothoracic Surgeon Doctors in Sioux City *

Mercy Vascular Cardiothoracic Surgeons
Keith R Allen
801 5th St
Sioux City, IA 51101
(712) 294-7000

Mercy Vascular Cardiothoracic Surgeons
Richard Gitter
801 5th St
Sioux City, IA 51101
(712) 294-7000

Heart Lung & Vascular Surgery
Steven J Feldhaus
201 Ridge Rd
RM 310
Council Bluffs, IA 51503
(402) 393-6700

Sioux City, Iowa

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Heart Transplant

Introduction to heart transplant

The idea of replacing a bad organ with a good one has been documented in ancient mythology. The first real organ transplants were probably skin grafts that may have been done in India as early as the second century B.C. The first heart transplant in any animal is credited to Vladimer Demikhov. Working in Moscow in 1946, Demikhov switched the hearts between two dogs. The dogs survived the surgery. The first heart transplant in human beings was done in South Africa in 1967 by Dr. Christiaan Barnard; the patient only lived 18 days. Most of the research that led to successful heart transplantation took place in the United States at Stanford University under the leadership of Dr. Norman Shumway. Once Stanford started reporting better results, other centers started doing heart transplants. However, successful transplantation of a human heart was not ready for widespread clinical application until medications were developed to prevent the recipient from "rejecting" the donor heart. This happened in 1983 when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a drug called cyclosporine (Gengraf, Neoral). Before the advent of cyclosporine, overall results of heart transplant were not very good.

What is a heart transplant?

Believe it or not, heart transplantation is a relatively simple operation for a cardiac surgeon. In fact, the procedure actually consists of three operations.

The first operation is harvesting the heart from the donor. The donor is usually an unfortunate person who has suffered irreversible brain injury, called "brain death". Very often these are patients who have had major trauma to the head, for example, in an automobile accident. The victim's organs, other than the brain, are working well with the help of medications and other "life support" that may include a respirator or other devices...

Recommended Reading Related to Heart Transplant

Myocardial Biopsy »

Myocardial Biopsy Introduction

A heart biopsy, also called myocardial biopsy or cardiac biopsy, is an invasive procedure to detect heart disease that involves using a bioptome (a small catheter with a grasping device on the end) to obtain a small piece of heart muscle tissue that is sent to a laboratory for analysis.

Why Do I Need a Myocardial Biopsy?

Your doctor uses myocardial biopsy to:

  • Evaluate or confirm the presence of rejection after heart transplant.
  • Diagnose myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) or certain other cardiac disorders such as cardiomyopathy or cardiac amyloidosis.

How Should I Prepare for a Heart Biopsy?

To prepare yourself for a heart biopsy you should know these things:

  • The procedure takes place in the hospital. Usually, you will come to the hospital the day of the test and it is performed as an outpatient procedure. In ...

Emergency Contact for Sioux City

  • In case of Emergency, call 911

Nearby Sioux City Hospitals *

Mercy Medical Center Sioux City
801 5th St
Sioux City, IA 51101
(712)279-2010

St Luke's Regional Medical Center
2720 Stone Park Blvd
Sioux City, IA 51104
(712)279-3500

Floyd Valley Hospital
714 Lincoln St NE
Le Mars, IA 51031
(712)546-7871

Pender Community Hospital
603 Earl St
Pender, NE 68047
(402)385-3083

Sanford Health Vermillion
20 S Plum St
Vermillion, SD 57069
(605)624-2611

Hawarden Community Hospital
1111 11th St
Hawarden, IA 51023
(712)551-3100

Providence Medical Center
1200 Providence Rd
Wayne, NE 68787
(402)375-3800

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