Heart transplantation is a surgical operation aimed at implantation, in an individual with severe heart failure, of a healthy heart from a recently deceased donor.
The term heart failure indicates that serious pathological condition in which a person's heart is irretrievably damaged and does not "work" as it should; in other words, it is difficult to pump blood into the circulation and to supply the various organs and tissues of the body with oxygen.
The most common causes of heart failure are: coronary heart disease, cardiomyopathies, heart valve defects ( valvulopathies ) and congenital heart defects .
In Italy, in 2013, the number of interventions held was 219, compared to 696 requests.
Still in our country, the average wait for a "new" heart is about 28 months, or 2 years and 4 months.
There are 17 Italian hospital centers capable of carrying out a heart transplant.
According to statistical research, around 3, 500 heart transplants are held every year worldwide .The greatest number of interventions takes place in the United States: here, in fact, between 2000 and 2300 operations are carried out annually. The American hospital that operates most in the sector is the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California: considered the best in the world, this facility carried out, in 2013, about 119 procedures - more than half of those held throughout Italy in the same year.
