About Methodist Heart and Lung Institute Heart Failure and Transplant Center

At Methodist Heart and Lung Institute Heart Failure and Transplant Center, our comprehensive heart failure program offers medical and surgical therapies for heart failure, including medication, infusion therapy, mechanical assistive devices and heart transplantation.

Our specialists are experts in heart care, providing treatment for heart failure patients and offering education and support services to ensure a healthy lifestyle post-surgery or transplant. We also provide cardiac rehabilitation services to equip patients with the proper tools to maintain a healthy diet and build an exercise plan.

To learn more about our services, or refer a patient, please call the Methodist Heart and Lung Institute Heart Failure and Transplant Center at (210) 575-8485.

Heart failure symptoms

Heart failure can present itself in a variety of ways. If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms, it’s important to speak with your doctor:

  • Feeling of suffocation while sleeping
  • Increased heart rate
  • Persistent coughing or wheezing
  • Shortness of breath performing everyday activities
  • Sudden weight gain from fluid retention
  • Swelling of the legs or abdomen
  • Waking up in the middle of the night short of breath
  • Weakness and fatigue

Heart failure treatments and procedures

Heart failure is a chronic condition that cannot be cured. But with medication and healthy lifestyle changes like diet and exercise, heart failure can usually be successfully managed.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), the process of removing and oxygenating the patient’s blood and returning the blood to the patient’s body, is an advanced life support available to a patient experiencing acute failure of their cardio-respiratory system. Our team can consider this for patients with severe cardiac failure and a potentially reversible cause for those who meet the appropriate criteria.

A heart transplant can help patients with heart failure who have exhausted all other medical therapies. As a final, lifesaving option, heart transplants are only considered for patients with severe heart failure who meet heart transplant criteria and have healthy organs otherwise.

If you are a physician and think your patient is a candidate for heart transplant surgery, please fill out our online patient referral form.

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