Advanced heart failure care in Kansas City

Advanced heart failure is a type of heart disease that occurs when the heart can't pump enough blood to meet the body's needs. When this happens, important organs may not be able to function normally. Heart failure can develop because of another heart or medical condition that weakens the heart muscle, such as coronary artery disease, hypertension or a heart attack.

Many people don't know they have heart failure because the symptoms are mistaken for another condition. Without timely diagnosis and treatment, heart failure can lead to serious complications and can be deadly. These symptoms are often signs of heart failure and should be checked out by a cardiologist:

• Fatigue or weakness
• Confusion
• Coughing or wheezing
• Swelling in the legs, ankles or stomach
• Difficulty breathing while lying down
• Shortness of breath during daily activities
• Reduced appetite and nausea
• Sudden weight gain

The University of Kansas Health System offers today's leading diagnostic tests and treatments for people with advanced heart failure. We provide comprehensive services for every stage of the disease process. We offer:

• Complex heart surgery
• Bridge-to-transplant services
• Left ventricular assist devices (LVAD)
• Heart transplant surgery

Heart transplant surgery is a complex procedure that is used to treat end-stage heart failure, which occurs when the heart muscle becomes too weak to pump blood through the body. All heart transplant candidates receive an evaluation to determine whether or not they are eligible for transplant. If you are accepted as a transplant candidate, your name is added to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) list. When a donor heart is available, recipients are matched for individual factors such as blood type, body size, placement on recipient list and geographical location.

The heart transplant care at The University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City combines experienced cardiac surgeons, cardiologists, nurses and other specialists to provide exceptional, streamlined care from the start of your treatment plan through recovery and beyond.

• From 2016-2018, 100% of our patients were alive 1 year after their heart transplant.
• Patients on our heart transplant waitlist were more than twice as likely to receive a heart than the national average.
• 3.4% more people on our waitlist lived.