Increasing the United States heart transplant donor pool with donation after circulatory death

Heart transplantation remains the gold standard therapy for patients with advanced heart failure; however, the utilization of heart transplantation is constrained by the limited supply of donor organs. To expand the pool of available organ donors further, there has recently been renewed interest in the use of donation after circulatory death (DCD) hearts for transplantation. Kidney, liver, pancreas, and lung transplants are currently being performed in the United States with organs procured from these donors; however, there are no DCD heart transplants being performed.
Source: The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery - Category: Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery Authors: Tags: Brief Research Report Source Type: research