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NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center performed 118 heart transplants in 2005, a one-year record for any U.S. medical center in the history of heart transplantation.

NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia has the largest heart transplant program in the country, having performed more than 1,700 transplants since the inception of its heart transplant program in 1977.

"Every heart transplant is a gift of life. This achievement is a tribute to the dedication of the physicians and nurses who work on the heart transplant team," says Dr. Yoshifumi Naka, director of cardiac transplantation and mechanical circulatory support programs at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia and the Herbert Irving Assistant Professor of Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

"Our record is recognition of NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia as a world leader in heart transplantation. It also points to the epidemic of heart failure in this country," says Dr. Donna Mancini, medical director of cardiac transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia and professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The survival rate for these 118 NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia heart transplant recipients in 2005 is 95 percent, 10 percent higher than the national average despite the fact that many patients are more severely ill.

NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia is recognized as a leader in the management of heart failure and the use of assist devices and novel immunosuppression protocols.

The previous one-year record of 113 heart transplants, set in 1998, was held by The Cleveland Clinic.

Heart Transplantation

The heart may be irreversibly damaged by heart disease or viral infection. People with long-term heart failure, heart muscle disease, or other irreversible heart injury from coronary artery disease and multiple heart attacks that cannot be treated by any other medical or surgical means may be candidates for heart transplants. When the heart can no longer work adequately and a person is at risk of dying, a heart transplant may be necessary. This involves removing a diseased heart and replacing it with a healthy human heart.

The demand for donor hearts is greater than the supply. At any given time, about 4,000 patients are on the national waiting list for a heart transplant, but only about 2,300 donor hearts become available for transplantation each year. The average waiting time to transplant is more than seven months.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, based in New York City, is the largest not-for-profit, non-sectarian hospital in the country, with 2,344 beds. It provides state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory, and preventive care in all areas of medicine at five major centers: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian, The Allen Pavilion, and The Westchester Division. One of the largest and most comprehensive health-care institutions in the world, the Hospital is committed to excellence in patient care, research, education, and community service. It consistently ranks as one of the top hospitals in the country in U.S.News & World Report's guide to "America's Best Hospitals," in New York magazine's Best Doctors issue, in Solucient's top 15 major teaching hospitals, and in many other leading surveys. The Hospital has academic affiliations with two of the country's leading medical colleges: Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons.