Study population and Donor Acceptance Rates
A total of 85,505 donor heart offers were made to 133 different centers, which resulted in 15,264 (17.9%) accepted donor hearts and 15,222 (17.8%) OHTs during the study period. The average acceptance rate per center was 19.1±10.8% (Table 1 ). The median donor acceptance rate was 16.9% [interquartile range (IQR) 12.1%-23.1%]. The most common reasons for donor refusal were donor age in 53.9% (n=32,731) and distance from transplanting center in 27.9% (n=16,911).
Of accepted donor hearts, 9.3% (n=3,697) over were from donors older than 40 years, 15.4% (n=4,445) with LVEF <60%, 3.9% (n=737) over 500 miles from the transplanting center, and 14.7% (n=604) with HIV, HCV or HBV. Lastly, 1.6% (n=498) of donors with over 50 offers were ultimately accepted for OHT (Table 2 ).