How many heart transplants are performed each year in the United States?

At any given time over 3,000 people are on the national patient waiting list for a heart transplant. Only about 2,200 donor hearts become available for transplant each year. Interestingly, these figures have not changed significantly for nearly 20 years. There have been campaigns to raise awareness of the importance of organ donation, but these have not yielded any significant increase in the number of available heart transplant donors. This disparity means that some patients die waiting for a new heart.

Ultimately, as the technology of ventricular assist devices (VAD) improves and their usage becomes more widespread, there may be a significant increase in the utilization of this device. This potential increase in VAD use may help to bridge the gap between the numbers of needy heart failure patients on the waiting list and the numbers of available donor hearts.