How does the patient survive being heartless before the new heart is implanted and how does the new heart even begin to start working in a new body?
In: Biology
During the transplant the patient is put on cardiopulmonary bypass. Basically all of the blood that would be going to the heart instead enters a tube, goes through a machine that helps to pump it, then travels through tubes that connect to the blood vessels exiting the heart.
Once on bypass, the old heart is cut out and the new heart is put in with the blood vessels sutured to the new heart. The new heart then begins to pump on its own.
The timing of the heart beat is generally controlled by a group of cells in the top of the heart. The cells essentially leak electrolytes, then when the level reaches a certain point, those cells send out a signal to cause the heart to contract. Then the cells reset the electrolytes and start leaking again. The rest of the muscle cells are kind of like dominoes. Once one of them is triggered to contract, the cells around it are triggered to contract and this pattern spreads through the entire heart.
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