A Novel Method of Donor-Recipient Size Matching in Pediatric Heart Transplantation: A Total Cardiac Volume Predictive Model

The pediatric heart transplant community uses weight-based donor to recipient size matching almost exclusively, despite no evidence to validate weight as a reliable surrogate of cardiac size. Donor size mismatch is the second most common reason for refusal of donor hearts in current practice ( ∼30% of all refusals). While case-by-case segmentation of total cardiac volume (TCV) by computed tomography (CT) for direct virtual transplantation is an attractive option, it remains limited by the unavailability of donor chest CT.

Source: The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation - December 4, 2020 Category: Transplant Surgery Authors: Nicholas A. Szugye, Farhan Zafar, Nicholas J. Ollberding, Chet Villa, Angela Lorts, Michael D. Taylor, David L.S. Morales, Ryan A. Moore Source Type: research