As of 2018[update], the most common procedure is to take a functioning heart, with or without both lungs, from a recently deceased organ donor (brain death is the standard[1]) and implant it into the patient.

In 1907, he wrote the paper "Tendencies in Pathology," in which he said that it would be possible one day by surgery to replace diseased human organs – including arteries, stomach, kidneys and heart.

[6][7][8] Although Hardy was a respected surgeon who had performed the world's first human-to-human lung transplant a year earlier,[9][10] author Donald McRae states that Hardy could feel the "icy disdain" from fellow surgeons at the Sixth International Transplantation Conference several weeks after this attempt with the chimpanzee heart.

The world's first successful pig-to-human heart transplant was performed in January 2022 by surgeon Bartley P. Griffith of USA.

[16][17] Patient Louis Washkansky received this transplant on December 3, 1967, at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.

[16][18][19] On December 6, 1967, at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, Adrian Kantrowitz performed the world's first pediatric heart transplant.

[21] Norman Shumway performed the first adult heart transplant in the United States on January 6, 1968, at the Stanford University Hospital.

This drug enabled much smaller amounts of corticosteroids to be used to prevent many cases of rejection (the "corticosteroid-sparing" effect of cyclosporine).

[25] On June 9, 1984, "JP" Lovette IV of Denver, Colorado, became the world's first successful pediatric heart transplant.

[32] In recent years, donor heart preservation has improved and Organ Care System is being used in some centers in order to reduce the harmful effect of cold storage.

Like other solid organ transplants, the risk of rejection never fully goes away, and the patient will be on immunosuppressive drugs for the rest of their life.

Usage of these drugs may cause unwanted side effects, such as an increased likelihood of contracting secondary infections or develop certain types of cancer.

Recipients can acquire kidney disease from a heart transplant due to the side effects of immunosuppressant medications.

Many recent advances in reducing complications due to tissue rejection stem from mouse heart transplant procedures.