Notice: Users may be experiencing issues with displaying some pages on stanfordhealthcare.org. We are working closely with our technical teams to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience.
Stanford Health Care

Stanford Health Care – Now

Doctor Stories

Stanford Medicine Surgeons Pioneer Beating-Heart Transplantation to Expand Donor Pool and Improve Outcomes

09.19.2025

In 2022, Stanford Medicine cardiothoracic surgeons performed the world’s first beating-heart transplant in an adult using a donor heart after circulatory death with the support of an organ perfusion system. This innovation not only increased the availability of donor hearts but also shifted the paradigm in heart transplantation.

“Developing this technique has enabled us to improve outcomes in patients needing a lifesaving heart transplant,” explains Joseph Woo, MD, the Norman E. Shumway Professor and Chair of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford Medicine.

Organ perfusion systems have expanded the pool of potential donor hearts. With mechanical perfusion, surgeons can use hearts from donors who have died from circulatory death—known as DCD (donation after circulatory death). Perfusion systems reanimate DCD hearts after they are removed from the donor, allowing them to continue pumping blood while being evaluated for transplant and transported to a recipient. Keeping a heart beating, rather than asleep on ice, improves both its assessment and preservation.

CARE AT STANFORD

Stanford Health Care (SHC) (formerly Stanford Hospital & Clinics)

We’re recognized worldwide as leaders in heart failure care and heart transplantation, achieving excellent outcomes with shorter-than-expected wait times.
650-723-5468

Visit Heart Transplant Program

Transplanting DCD hearts has traditionally required stopping the heart twice: first at the time of death and then immediately before transplantation after it’s removed from perfusion. Dr. Woo and his colleagues understood that arresting a donor heart a second time induces more injury to the heart and increases the recipient’s recovery time.

Questioning the need to stop a beating heart before transplant led them to evaluate the feasibility of transplanting a beating heart and develop protocols to do so. Outcomes ultimately showed that patients undergoing beating-heart transplants recovered faster, spent less time in the ICU, and were less likely to need postoperative blood transfusions or dialysis.

Other centers across the world are now performing this procedure with growing frequency to help increase transplant access to an ever-growing population of candidates. A recent case is evidence that a concept born at Stanford Medicine continues to transform the field.

“We are proud to carry on Stanford Medicine’s legacy of pioneering some of the firsts in heart transplantation, a precedent set by Dr. Norman E. Shumway, who performed the first adult heart transplant in the United States in 1968,” says Dr. Woo.

Watch interviews with Stanford Medicine surgeons involved in the first beating-heart transplant. (Warning: This video contains graphic images of a beating heart and surgical procedures).

Learn more about the Heart Transplant Program at Stanford Health Care.

Close