Expert, Coordinated Care from Two of Cincinnati’s Best

When you live with a single ventricle heart and a Fontan circulation, your heart and liver are impacted. Sometimes, a transplant is an appropriate next step.

Cincinnati Children’s and University of Cincinnati (UC) Health provide a joint Heart-Liver Transplant Program. This service combines the skills of care teams in the Cincinnati Children’s Fontan Management Clinic and UC Health Transplant Program.

If you need a heart-liver transplant, you can expect the best care from both medical centers. Cincinnati Children’s is one of the only health systems in the country to provide complete care for adults with single ventricle defects, including special expertise in treating the liver. UC Health provides the region’s only comprehensive adult transplant program. Its team conducts leading-edge research that has advanced the field of transplantation.

Who is a Candidate for a Heart-Liver Transplant?

If you are living with coexisting heart and liver disease, you may be a candidate for a heart-liver transplant.

Many people with single ventricle heart conditions and a Fontan circulation also develop advanced liver disease. Your care team will determine if your best chance for long-term survival is a combined heart-liver transplant.

Benefits of Receiving Care from Pediatric and Adult Transplant Experts

For adults with single ventricle heart defects, it is important to receive your care at an accredited comprehensive adult congenital heart care center like Cincinnati Children’s. Our experts manage your heart and other organ issues that are unique to patients born with heart defects. We know how to care for you before and after your transplant.

On the adult side, UC Health has the only adult heart and liver transplant program in Cincinnati. Their transplant team helps manage transplant concerns more commonly encountered in older patients. UC Health is also ranked among the top 20 in the nation for number of liver transplants performed each year.

What to Expect During a Heart-Liver Transplant

UC Health and the Fontan Management Clinic care teams work together to provide your care. They collaborate with Cincinnati Children’s for the full scope of care, from your first evaluation through post-transplant follow-up.

Your UC Health care team includes:

• Heart doctors (cardiologists)
• Liver doctors (hepatologists)
• Intensive care doctors (intensivists)
• Occupational therapists
• Physical therapists
• Psychologists
• Social workers
• Surgeons

If you’re an adult, you will have your initial evaluation at Cincinnati Children’s. Your operation will take place here as well.

We’ll monitor you after your transplant in the Cincinnati Children’s Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU). Then, depending on how you are doing, you will be transferred to the Cincinnati Children’s Acute Care Cardiology Unit or UC Health.

You will receive follow-up care at Cincinnati Children’s for up to one year after your transplant. Then, your follow-up visits will take place at UC Health.

Pediatric patients will receive all pre-transplant and post-transplant care at Cincinnati Children's.