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Review
. 2023 Nov;48(11):101870.
doi: 10.1016/j.cpcardiol.2023.101870. Epub 2023 Jun 10.

Worldwide and Country-Specific Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Heart Transplantation Volumes: A Longitudinal Analysis of 2020 and 2021

Yosef Manla  1 , Firas Al Badarin  1 , Nour Bader  2 , Terrence Lee-St John  3 , Mandeep R Mehra  4 , Feras Bader  5
Affiliations
Review

Worldwide and Country-Specific Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Heart Transplantation Volumes: A Longitudinal Analysis of 2020 and 2021

Yosef Manla et al. Curr Probl Cardiol. 2023 Nov.

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic hampered operational efficiency of heart transplant (HT) programs worldwide. Little is known about the global and country-specific changes in HT volumes during the pandemic years 2020-2021. We aimed to describe the global and country-level impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HT volumes in 2020-2021. This is a cross-sectional study of the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation, including the years 2019-2021. Among 60 countries that reported HT data in the years 2019-2020, we analyzed 52 countries with ≥1 transplant during each year. Overall, the number of HTs decreased during 2020 by 9.3% (1.82 to 1.65 PMP). While 75% (n = 39/52) of countries experienced a decrease in HT volumes in 2020, volumes were maintained/increased in the remaining countries. Countries with maintained HT volumes had a higher organ donation rate in 2020 compared to those with decreased volumes (P = 0.03), the only significant predictor of change in HT volumes (P = 0.005). In 2021, a 6.6% recovery from the previous year's drop in global HT rate was noticed, reaching 1.76 HT PMP. Only 1 in 5 countries with reduced volumes in 2020 recovered their baseline volumes in 2021. Only 30.8% of countries with maintained volumes in 2020 had continued growth in HT volumes in 2021. The latter group encompassed the United States of America, the Netherlands, Poland, and Portugal. Further work should define underlying causes of this heterogeneity in HT volume during the pandemic. Identifying policies and practices that helped certain countries mitigate the effect of the pandemic on HT activities may help other countries during similar health crises in the future.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Changes in Heart Transplant Volumes Worldwide in the First year (2020) of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Figure 2
Figure 2
Changes in Heart Transplantation Globally in the Years 2020 and 2021 of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Figure 3
Figure 3
Classification of Countries According to Changes in Heart Transplant Volumes during the First Two Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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