Successful Heart Transplantation after Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation of Donors

Abstract

Background: Heart transplantation (HTx) is the best therapy for end-stage heart failure. Unfortunately, death on the waiting list remains a problem. Decreasing the number of rejected organs could increase the donor pool.

Methods: A total of 144 patients underwent HTx at our department between 2010 and 2019. Of them, 27 patients received organs of donors with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) prior to organ donation (donor CPR) and were compared with patients who received organs without CPR (control; n = 117).

Results: We did not observe any disadvantage in the outcome of the donor CPR group compared with the control group. Postoperative morbidity and 1-year survival (control: 72%; donor CPR: 82%; p = 0.35) did not show any differences. We found no impact of the CPR time as well as the duration between CPR and organ donation, but we found an improved survival rate for donors suffering from anoxic brain injury compared with cerebral injury (p = 0.04).

Conclusions: Donor organs should not be rejected for HTx due to resuscitation prior to donation. The need for CPR does not affect the graft function after HTx in both short- and mid-term outcomes. We encourage the use of these organs to increase the donor pool and preserve good results.