Throughout your heart transplant recovery, our team is at your side. We are your steady partner from the moment you wake up after surgery to your annual check-ups. Our goal is to help you live a full life after heart transplant.
How Long Is Recovery After a Heart Transplant?
Recovery from heart transplant surgery is long and your new heart requires lifelong care. Factors that impact how fast you recover include your:
- Age
- Health before the transplant
- Complications after surgery
In general, you are up and walking a few days after surgery and can leave the hospital in 10 to 14 days. Most people start feeling healthy and strong again in about six months.
Heart Transplant Recovery and Life After Transplant
After a serious illness and time spent on the heart transplant waiting list, receiving a transplant may be a relief. But recovery takes time and your new heart requires lifelong care. The steps of recovery include:
Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit
After surgery, your care team transfers you to the cardiothoracic intensive care unit (ICU).
When you wake up, you are attached to many tubes and medical devices. You have a breathing tube so you cannot talk and soft wrist restraints to prevent you from pulling out the tubes. We remove the breathing tube and restraints when you are fully awake — usually within 24 hours.
Over the next few days, the ICU team eases you off of the supportive devices and medications. You begin physical therapy to help you get moving. We also manage your immunosuppression medications to prevent rejection.
Your family is at your bedside in the ICU. During daily rounds where your care team gathers to review your progress, we invite your family to participate. If you don't have complications, you can expect to spend about five days in the ICU.
Cardiac Progressive Care Unit
After the ICU, we take you to a "step-down" hospital room. Here, the transplant team follows your recovery and prepares you for discharge. You undergo frequent testing and medication adjustments, especially for your immunosuppression medications.
On your seventh day in the step-down unit, we perform a heart biopsy to look for signs of rejection. If the biopsy results are normal, you have an echocardiogram the following day and usually leave the day after that.
Before discharge, we provide several learning sessions for you and your caregivers. We review your medications and how to care for yourself after you go home. You receive a binder with information, contact numbers and daily monitoring logs.
The first few days at home can be overwhelming. For the first month, you should have someone with you at all times. Most patients receive home nursing services and physical therapy to help during this time. And if you have any questions or concerns, we are available through our 24/7 call line.
Inpatient Rehabilitation
When you leave the hospital, you may need more care than you can receive at home. Inpatient rehabilitation helps bridge this transition.
Good Shepherd Penn Partners is Penn's rehabilitation affiliate. They provide personalized care to help you continue your recovery and gain the strength you need to go home.
Follow-Up Care
After discharge, you come to the Penn Transplant Institute every week at first then every other week. At about six months, we reduce visits to once a month and, eventually, to every year.
Follow-up visits include laboratory and imaging tests. We watch you closely for signs of infection, heart rejection and medication side effects.
Our team develops a recovery plan to help you heal and resume the activities you enjoy. It is essential that you follow this plan, which includes:
- Eating a low-fat and low-sodium diet
- Exercising regularly
- Monitoring your health for any changes
- Remaining smoke-free
- Taking your medications as prescribed
If you need help or have any problems that affect your recovery, let your team know. We offer a full range of heart transplant support services to see you through difficult times.
Risks After Heart Transplant
The risks of all surgeries include infection, bleeding and blood clots. Additional risks associated with heart transplant include:
- Allograph vasculopathy: This complication is a hardening and narrowing of the arteries that feed the heart. This decrease in blood flow can lead to heart attack, heart failure, arrhythmias or sudden cardiac death. We check your heart for allograph vasculopathy with a yearly stress test.
- Immunosuppressant side effects: After your heart transplant, you will take immunosuppressant medications for the rest of your life. Taking this medication can cause kidney damage, increase your risk of developing certain cancers and decrease your ability to fight infection. We monitor you for kidney disease and cancer at your routine appointments. Let your team know right away if you have any signs or symptoms of infection.
- Primary graft failure: Sometimes even a well-matched donor heart does not function correctly during the first few months following a transplant. This condition is the most common cause of death after a heart transplant and one we watch closely for.
- Rejection of the donor heart: Your immune system may recognize your donor heart as foreign and try to reject it. Not all patients experience symptoms with rejection. We conduct regular heart biopsies to detect rejection.
What Happens if a Heart Transplant Is Rejected?
If a heart biopsy detects signs of rejection, we can intervene to halt the process. You may receive a higher dose of your current immunosuppression medication or a different type.
For severe cases, we may recommend other strategies to further suppress your immune system, such as:
- Plasmapheresis: Filters your blood to remove harmful antibodies
- Photopheresis: Uses ultraviolet light to decrease the activity of certain immune cells
- Lymphoid irradiation: Applies radiation to decrease the activity of your lymph nodes which play an important role in immune response
What Is the Average Life Expectancy After a Heart Transplant?
The national average for one-year survival after heart transplant is 91 percent. At Penn Medicine, our survival rates are similar to the national average even though many of our patients are high risk.
Recently published data from heart transplants performed between 1990 and 2007 show that about half are alive after 10 years. However, better treatments for preventing graft failure and rejection are improving the outlook for people who receive heart transplants.
Heart Transplant Recovery: The Penn Medicine Difference
Heart transplant surgery is the start of a long journey of care. After you wake up and for the rest of your life, we monitor your health closely and provide constant support. Benefits of post-surgical care at the Penn Heart Transplant Program include:
- Multispecialty expertise: Our heart transplant team includes highly skilled doctors and nurses who manage your care and respond swiftly to any complications that arise.
- Family-centered approach: We welcome your loved ones to stay at your bedside and participate in care-team meetings. Before discharge, you and caregivers receive education to prepare you for care at home.
- Tailored recovery plan: We develop an individualized plan to help you heal and regain your strength. We review your plan during your visits and fine tune it as needed.
- Coordinated care: Our team communicates routinely with your primary care provider and other specialists to share information and track your health long term.
- Comprehensive support: Our social workers can help you cope with stress or anxiety and connect you with community resources to meet your specific needs.
- Valued relationships: We cherish the relationships we develop with our patients. Over time, we get to know you personally and help you celebrate the milestones of your life.
Preparation and Education Makes all the Difference in Recovery
On his way into heart transplant surgery, Bob was giving high-fives. He was prepared and ready to face the long road to recovery. Read Bob's story and how the Penn transplant team was with him every step of the way.
Make an Appointment
Please call 800-789-7366 or request a callback.