Heart and Lung Transplant
UI Health Care’s heart and lung transplant teams offer excellent results based on decades of experience and hundreds of procedures. We view each case as an opportunity to provide new life for someone whose heart or lungs have been badly damaged.
Our multidisciplinary approach involves specialist physicians and nurses, physical therapists, pharmacists, dietitians, and social workers. The only heart and lung transplant program in Iowa offers a future for patients suffering from cardiomyopathy or heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and end-stage lung diseases including cystic fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension, and inhalation damage.
For both heart and lung transplant patients, the comprehensive services of the UI Heart and Vascular Center assure continuity of care throughout the transplant process. Our exceptional outcomes exceed national transplant averages placing both of these programs among the best in the country.
The UI program also offers high–tech options for patients waiting for transplantation such as Ventricular Assist Devices (VADs), which is a portable heart pump; and Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), a technology that allows an overburdened heart and lungs to rest.