The cardiac allograft

A cardiac allograft is a heart transplant where a healthy heart from a donor is surgically implanted into a patient with severe heart failure. The goal is to restore normal heart function and improve quality of life. Because the recipient's immune system may recognize the new heart as foreign, they typically need lifelong medication to prevent rejection. Advances in matching donors and recipients, alongside better immunosuppressive drugs, have increased the success and survival rates of heart transplants. Overall, a cardiac allograft can be a life-saving procedure for patients with end-stage heart disease.