Utilization of the Organ Care System – A Game-Changer in Combating Donor Organ Shortage

ABSTRACT: For patients with end-stage heart failure, cardiac transplantation persists to be the gold standard. Nevertheless, the availability of organs remains a main constraint to the treatment. Through mounting usage of ex vivo heart perfusion an increase in organ availability was achieved by reconditioning of organs formerly not regarded as appropriate for transplantation. We propose the future standard application of this state-of-the-art technology to improve the pool of donor organs by evaluating hearts outside standard acceptability criteria.

Keywords: Heart Transplantation - methods, Graft Survival, Organ Preservation - methods, Perfusion - methods, Tissue Donors - supply & distribution

References

1. García Sáez D, Zych B, Sabashnikov A, Evaluation of the organ care system in heart transplantation with an adverse donor/recipient profile: Ann Thorac Surg, 2014; 98; 2099-105, pmid: 25443013 discussion 2105–6

2. García Sáez D, Elbetanony A, Lezberg P: J Surg Res, 2014 pii: S0022-4804(14)01157-3 [Epubahead of print]

3. Boucek M, Mashburn C, Dunn SM, Pediatric heart transplantation after declaration of cardiocirculatory death: N Engl J Med, 2008; 359; 709-14, pmid: 18703473

4. Veatch RM, Donating hearts after cardiac death – reversing the irreversible: N Engl J Med, 2008; 359; 672-73, pmid: 18703468

5. Daemen JW, Kootstra G, Wijnen RM, Nonheart-beating donors: The Maastricht experience: Clin Transplant, 1994; 303-16

6. Iyer A, Gao L, Doyle A: Am J Transplant, 2015; 15; 371-80, pmid: 25612491

7. St Vincent’s Health Australia newsroom https://svha.org.au/home/newsroom/announcements/first-dcd-heart-transplant

8. Popov AF, Sabashnikov A, Patil NP: Med Sci Monit Basic Res, 2015; 21; 9-14, pmid: 25644463