A cardiac (heart) transplant replaces a failing heart with a healthy heart from a donor who has died. It is reserved for end-stage heart failure that no longer responds to medicines, devices or conventional surgery.
It can restore a good quality of life for many years, but it is limited by the shortage of donor hearts and by the lifelong need for anti-rejection medicines and close follow-up. It is not a realistic medical travel procedure, and this page explains why.
What Cardiac Transplant involves
Assessment comes first and takes days to weeks: heart catheter pressure measurements, lung, kidney and liver tests, infection and cancer screening, tissue typing and a psychological and social review. If accepted, you join a national waiting list. When a matching heart becomes available you are called in urgently. Under general anaesthesia the chest is opened through the breastbone, you are placed on a heart-lung machine, the diseased heart is removed and the donor heart is sewn to the great vessels and upper chambers. Once it beats strongly the bypass machine is withdrawn. While waiting, some people need a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) as a bridge.
Who is a good candidate for Cardiac Transplant?
Transplant is considered only when advanced heart failure persists despite optimal treatment and no other serious illness limits survival.
- You have end-stage heart failure with severe symptoms despite full medical and device therapy
- Your other organs, especially lungs and kidneys, work well enough
- You have no active cancer or uncontrolled infection
- You can commit to lifelong medicines and frequent clinic visits
- You have reliable support from family or carers
It is usually not the right choice if:
- You have fixed high pressure in the lung arteries
- You have active or recent cancer, or a severe irreversible disease of another organ
- You smoke, or use alcohol or drugs in a harmful way, and have not stopped
- You live abroad and cannot stay near the transplant centre for many months on a waiting list
- You are looking for a way to obtain a donor heart faster by travelling
الخيارات التقنية
- Orthotopic heart transplant: The standard operation: your heart is removed and the donor heart placed in its position.
- LVAD as bridge to transplant: A mechanical pump supports the left ventricle while you wait; it can also be a long-term therapy in people who cannot be transplanted.
- Combined heart and lung or heart and kidney transplant: Rare, for selected people with failure of both organs, in a few highly specialised centres.
ماذا يحدث خلال علاجك
The operation takes 4 to 8 hours under general anaesthesia. You are asleep throughout. You wake in intensive care with a breathing tube, chest drains, pacing wires and several infusions, and the tube is usually removed within a day or two. Expect about 1 week in intensive care and 2 to 4 weeks in hospital in total if recovery is smooth.
الإعداد لرحلتك
Plan for Not suited to medical travel in Istanbul. Your surgeon reviews photographs and your medical history before you book, and you meet in person the day before surgery for examination, marking and consent with a professional interpreter.
- Stop smoking and nicotine at least four weeks before and after surgery; it is the single biggest avoidable cause of wound problems
- Tell the team about every medicine and supplement you take; blood thinners, some herbal products and hormone treatment may need to be paused on your doctor's advice
- Arrange for someone to travel with you or to be reachable, and keep the first days at home free of work and lifting
- Book a changeable return flight; your surgeon confirms when you are fit to fly
التعافي والنتائج
The first 3 months are the most intensive: frequent blood tests, heart biopsies or other rejection checks, and adjustment of anti-rejection drugs. Most people walk daily within weeks and return to ordinary activities by 3 to 6 months. The breastbone takes about 3 months to heal. Anti-rejection medicines are taken for life and follow-up never stops. Typical survival is around 85 to 90 in 100 at one year, with about half of recipients living beyond 12 years.
- Back to everyday activity: 3 to 6 months
- When results show: Improvement over weeks to months
- How long they last: Median over 12 years with lifelong care
سياسة السلامة والمخاطر والتنقيح
A transplant exchanges one serious condition for a managed long-term one. The risks are substantial and continue for life.
- Early failure of the donor heart
- Acute rejection, most common in the first year
- Serious infection because the immune system is suppressed
- Kidney damage, high blood pressure and diabetes from anti-rejection medicines
- Narrowing of the new heart's arteries over years (cardiac allograft vasculopathy)
- Higher long-term risk of skin cancer and lymphoma
- Bleeding, stroke or death around the operation
Every written proposal arranged through Clinic-Y states what the clinic covers if a correction is needed. Ask for it before you book, not after.
Cost of Cardiac Transplant in Türkiye
Clinic-Y does not publish a single price for Cardiac Transplant, because the honest figure depends on your case. What moves it:
- Length of intensive care and hospital stay
- Need for an LVAD or other mechanical support before transplant
- Lifelong anti-rejection medicines and monitoring
- Treatment of rejection episodes or infections
- Months of accommodation near the centre for you and a carer
Send your photographs or reports and you receive written, all-inclusive proposals from suitable teams, side by side. Reviewing your case is free.
الأسئلة المتكررة
Can an international patient get a heart transplant in Türkiye?
Realistically, no. Hearts come only from deceased donors and are allocated through the national system to patients on the national list. Turkish law permits living donation only from relatives, with ethics committee approval, and that applies to organs such as kidney and liver, not the heart. No one can arrange a donor heart for you.
What can a visit offer instead?
A thorough advanced heart failure assessment, a second opinion on whether your medicines and devices are optimal, and in selected cases evaluation for an LVAD. The report can support a transplant referral in your own country.
How long is the wait for a heart?
It varies widely with blood group, body size and urgency, from weeks to more than a year, and some people become too unwell while waiting.
Is life normal afterwards?
Many recipients work, travel and exercise. The conditions are daily medicines on a strict schedule, care with infection, sun protection and regular clinic visits for life.