Spanish experience with heart transplants from controlled donation after the circulatory determination of death using thoraco-abdominal normothermic regional perfusion and cold storage

Abstract

Heart transplantation from controlled donation after the circulatory determination of death (cDCDD) may help to increase the availability of hearts for transplantation. During 2020, four heart transplants were performed at three different Spanish hospitals based on the use of thoraco-abdominal normothermic regional perfusion (TA-NRP) followed by cold storage (CS). All donors were young adults <45 years. The functional warms ischemic time ranged from 8 to 16 minutes. In all cases, the heart recovered sinus rhythm within 1 minute of TA-NRP. TA-NRP was weaned off or decreased <1L within 25 minutes. No recipient required mechanical support after transplantation and all were immediately extubated and discharged home (median hospital stay: 21 days) with an excellent outcome. Four livers, eight kidneys, and two pancreata were also recovered and transplanted. All abdominal grafts recipients experienced an excellent outcome. The use of TA-NRP makes heart transplantation feasible and allows assessing heart function before organ procurement without any negative impact on the preservation of abdominal organs. The use of TA-NRP in cDCDD heart donors in conjunction with cold storage following retrieval can eliminate the need to use ex situ machine perfusion devices, making cDCDD heart transplantation economically possible in other countries.