A heart transplant is a surgical procedure to replace a patient's damaged or failing heart with a healthy heart from a recently deceased organ donor. It is a treatment that's usually reserved for patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease who have exhausted treatments with medications or other surgeries. Patients with transplanted hearts usually survive an average of 15 years after the operation.

There are usually many more people waiting for heart transplant than donor hearts available. In the U.S., more than 3,100 patients currently are on the national waiting list for a heart transplant. Just over 2,300 heart transplants were performed in 2011.

Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney who had a long history of cardiovascular problems, received a heart transplant on March 24, 2012 from an unidentified donor.