Heart-lung transplants are offered to patients suffering from both advanced heart and lung disease. Leading reasons why people receive heart/lung transplants include:

• Pulmonary hypertension—a large increase in the pressure in the arteries that carry blood from the heart to the lungs
• Congenital heart disease
• Eisenmenger’s syndrome – an acquired form of pulmonary hypertension that results from having a “hole in the heart”
• Sarcoidosis—a rare disease that can affect both the heart and lungs

Although a strict age cutoff does not exist, most patients who receive a heart-lung transplant are less than 60 years old.

A heart-lung transplant is the replacement of a person's diseased heart and lungs with those from a donor. The donor's organs are completely removed and quickly transported to the patient. Organs are cooled and kept in a special solution while being taken to the patient.

During the transplant operation, the patient is placed on a heart/lung machine. This machine allows surgeons to circulate oxygenated blood without involving the heart or the lungs, making surgery possible. Doctors remove both of the patient's lungs and heart except for the back walls of the atria, the heart's upper chambers. To complete a heart lung transplant, the surgeon connects the donor's trachea, or windpipe, to the recipient allowing the new lungs to breathe air. The heart is then connected by sewing together the two new atria and then the major blood vessels allowing blood to flow through the heart and lungs. As the heart warms up, it begins beating. Sometimes, surgeons must start the heart with an electrical shock. Surgeons check all the connected blood vessels and heart chambers for bleeding before removing the patient from the heart/lung machine. Patients are usually up and out of bed a few days after surgery, and if there are no signs of the body immediately rejecting the organs, patients are allowed to go home within two to three weeks.