Throwing out the good with the bad: Declining potential donor hearts with left ventricular dysfunction

We are currently facing an epidemic of patients surviving end stage heart failure. Although over 20,000 patients may benefit from heart transplantation per year, only 3,000 will receive a new heart, with a waitlist mortality of 10.7 deaths per 100,000 wait-list years.1 Due to this growing disparity, we are no longer able to limit acceptance to the “ideal” organ. As such, there has been increased interest in identifying donor risk factors that, while not ideal, still result in acceptable recipient outcomes.
Source: The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation - Category: Transplant Surgery Authors: Source Type: research