Heart Transplants: What Happens in Case of Rejection?

How much time the patient undergoing the heart transplant surgery will need to spend at the hospital may vary from one person to the other. The usual hospital stay after the surgery is between 1 and 2 weeks; following that there’s a period of 3 months when the patient is monitored by members of transplant team at heart transplant centers. During this 3 month phase and sometimes even after that the patient may experience problems that may be signs of rejection.

What the term ‘rejection’ means in the context of a heart transplant surgery? The heart transplanted in the body of the patient by removing his original heart is a foreign body and can be attacked by the patient’s immune system. This happens more commonly in the patients who do not get adequate medication for suppressing their immune system following the surgery. The patient with assistance from the members of transplant team protects the newly transplanted heart by staying alert about occurrence of any sign of rejection. The common rejection symptoms include:

• Fatigue
• Fever
• Breathing difficulties
• Weight gain (this occurs primarily due to fluid retention)
• Reduction in the amount of urine (this symptom occurs in case of kidney disorders)

To prevent these signs of rejection the patient must take medications for suppressing their immune system. This will make sure that their system does not reject the newly transplanted heart. These medications are referred to as the immunosuppressants. Immunosuppressants include combination of medications tailored according to the patient health conditions. The most commonly use medications for this purpose include: MMF or mycophenolate mofetil, tacrolimus, cyclosporine, steroids like prednisone etc.

Transplant medications causing severe side effects or lacking the degree of immunity suppressing effects required by the patient are often altered by the doctor.