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. 2021 Aug;23(4):e13684.
doi: 10.1111/tid.13684. Epub 2021 Jul 12.

Lung transplant recipient attitudes and beliefs on accepting an organ that is positive for hepatitis C virus

Sapna S Humar  1 , Natalia Pinzon  1 , Marcelo Cypel  1 , Susan Abbey  1   2
Affiliations

Lung transplant recipient attitudes and beliefs on accepting an organ that is positive for hepatitis C virus

Sapna S Humar et al. Transpl Infect Dis. 2021 Aug.

Abstract

Introduction: Little is known about patient perceptions regarding HCV+ organ use in non-HCV-infected recipients. This study examined factors influencing the decision to accept HCV+ organs and the resulting impacts.

Methods: Adult lung transplant (LT) patients or candidates who had consented to receive an HCV+ organ completed a survey including multiple choice, a five-point Likert scale, and free-text answers. A total of 67 LT recipients or candidates who had consented to receive HCV+ organs were enrolled, of which 21/67 (31%) received HCV+ lungs, 39 (58%) HCV- lungs, and seven (10%) were still waiting.

Results: Pre-transplant, 50/67 (75%) patients felt it was either "completely safe" or "very safe" to accept an HCV+ organ. Although 22/67 (33%) said they never or rarely took risks, they still made the decision to accept an HCV+ organ. Common reported reasons were desperation, perception of having "no choice," and increasing symptom severity. In the subset of patients that were transplanted with an HCV+ organ (n = 21), only 12.5% reported second thoughts about accepting. Post-transplant, the majority (87.5%) never felt any anxiety about HCV and most (83%) reported no impact from HCV. Perception of treatment tolerability and ease was highly favorable.

Conclusion: Use of HCV+ organs demonstrated minimal detrimental perceived impacts on lung transplant patients. Patients generally found the experience to be very positive.

Keywords: donor-derived infection; patient education; survey.

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References

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