By Sara Reeve
USC Health Sciences Public Relations and Marketing

When it comes to heart transplants, patient survival rates are at the “heart” of a program’s success. A recent national report has shown that the USC Heart Transplant Program at USC University Hospital has a statistically higher three-year survival rate than the national average.

In a July 2009 report, the U.S. Transplant Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients compiled risk-adjusted survival rates for the 125 heart transplant centers across the country. USC was one of only three centers to achieve a statistically higher survival rating. This report marked the second year in a row that USC achieved a statistically higher survival rating.

“Having patient survival rates statistically higher than the national average over multiple years speaks to our consistency of quality care,” said Mark Barr, associate professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the Keck School of Medicine. “Any program can have a good year, or even a bad year, once in a while. But year over year? That speaks to the fact that we are doing a lot of things right.”

The program performed 24 heart transplants in 2008, while the typical heart program performed between nine and 22.

According to Barr, knowing when not to perform transplant surgery adds to the program’s success. “We are able to utilize the state-of-the-art MRI scanning capability here at USC, allowing us to accurately assess which patients need bypass surgery and which really need transplant surgery,” he said. “This combined approach has allowed us to avoid the need for transplant surgery for hundreds of patients.”

The USC Heart Transplantation program provides transplant services for patients with end-stage cardiac disease for whom other medical or surgical therapies are not advisable. Most transplant patients are otherwise healthy, are under the age of 70 and usually carry the diagnosis of cardiomyopathy or coronary disease.