Profile of patients in the Unified Waiting List for heart transplantation in state of Ceará.

Background: Organ transplants have increased considerably in recent years because of technological developments and society's awareness for organ donation.

Objective: To describe the characteristics of the single list of patients waiting for heart transplantation; to identify the main heart diseases; and determine the average time a patient stays in the list until the surgery.

Methods: This is a descriptive, documentary and retrospective study with a quantitative approach.