The nurse is preparing a patient for cardiac surgery. During the procedure, the patients heart will be removed and a donor heart implanted at the vena cava and pulmonary veins. What procedure will this patient undergo?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Orthotopic transplantation is the most common surgical procedure for cardiac transplantation. The recipients heart is removed, and the donor heart is implanted at the vena cava and pulmonary veins. Some surgeons still prefer to remove the recipients heart, leaving a portion of the recipients atria (with the vena cava and pulmonary veins) in place. Homografts, or allografts (i.e., human valves), are obtained from cadaver tissue donations and are used for aortic and pulmonic valve replacement. Xenografts and heterotropic transplantation are not terms used to describe heart transplantation.

The Nurse Is Preparing a Patient for Cardiac Surgery