Heart Transplant

Vanderbilt Health is one of the top heart transplant programs in the world. In 2024, Vanderbilt set a world record by performing 174 adult and pediatric heart transplants. The number of patients whose lives were saved by our heart transplant team far surpasses any previous total by an individual transplant center. Our vast experience means expert care for you.

Results for Vanderbilt heart transplant patients regularly exceed national standards.

We offer mechanical support options while you wait for a heart transplant—or sometimes instead of a transplant. For example, a ventricular assist device (VAD) allows you to live normally at home. As one of the first hospitals in the Southeast to offer VADs, we’ve implanted more than 500, including implanting the first total artificial heart in 2018. We were also among the first to provide extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for patients with severe conditions.

Our heart transplant teams helped pioneer the transplant of hearts from donors with hepatitis C. This greatly increases the number of healthy donor hearts available for waiting recipients. Our teams also were among the first to use ex vivo perfusion, keeping a heart beating while in transit from donor to recipient. This helps ensure the donor heart you receive is the healthiest it can be.

We are one of only a few transplant programs designated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide organ transplant services to our nation’s veterans.

We know our smallest patients require a dedicated team of specialists as knowledgeable as they are comforting in their approach to pediatric care. That’s why we provide pediatric transplant services through the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Our transplant pharmacists offer the highest level of care and expertise for transplant patients. Each transplant pharmacist works directly with doctors and staff to monitor patients' care plans.

Vanderbilt is consistently ranked among the nation’s best by leading authorities on health care quality. People from throughout the Southeast and across the country rely on us for the best and most innovative care possible.