02 ) Heart-Lung Transplant US $ 1,148,400
MOST EXPENSIVE MEDICAL PROCEDURES
02 ) Heart-Lung Transplant US $ 1,148,400
A combined heart and lung transplant is extremely rare in the United States , with roughly 100 performed annually . The difficulty in finding a donor is a primary reason , beyond the difficulty in the operation itself . Candidates must be under the age of 55 and be healthy enough otherwise to survive the rehabilitation period and regimen of immunosuppressant drugs to prevent infection and rejection . During surgery both the dying heart and lungs are removed and the patient is connected to a machine that will facilitate breathing and the circulation of blood to the body . While still incredibly rare and risky , and exorbitantly expensive at a cost of over a million dollars , survival rates for heart-lung transplant patients has increased to nearly 85 percent a year after surgery .
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