Understanding the Potential Value of Cardiovascular Brain Death Donors
to Increase the Heart Donor Pool.
- Nicolas Brozzi,
- David Baran,
- Federico Napoli
Abstract
Multiple approaches in recent years have been implemented to address the
persistent shortage of heart donors, including a recent modification of
UNOS heart allocation system, expanding donor acceptance criteria, and
adoption of novel techniques to utilize hearts from donors with
circulatory death. The opioid epidemic has resulted in an exponential
increase in deaths in the United States in recent years, particularly
affecting younger adults. A recent analysis of UNOS database by Jenser
et al. reveals a relative underutilization of heart donors with
cardiovascular mechanism of brain death which provide similar long-term
survival as donors with other mechanisms of brain death, highlighting
the potential role of these donors to provide life saving cardiac
allografts and mitigate the persistent shortage of hearts for
transplantation.31 Oct 2022Submitted to Journal of Cardiac Surgery 31 Oct 2022Submission Checks Completed
31 Oct 2022Assigned to Editor
31 Oct 2022Editorial Decision: Accept