Post-transplant survival after normothermic regional perfusion versus direct procurement and perfusion in donation after circulatory determination of death in heart transplantation

Abstract

BackgroundSince 2019, the annual transplantation rate of hearts donated following circulatory death (DCD) has increased significantly in the United States. The two major heart procurement techniques following circulatory death are direct procurement and perfusion (DPP) and normothermic regional perfusion (NRP). Post-transplant survival for heart recipients has not been compared between these two techniques. MethodsThis observational study uses data on adult heart transplants from donors after circulatory death from January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2021, in the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. We identified comparable transplant cases across procurement types using propensity-score matching and measured the association between procurement technique and 1-year post-transplant survival using Kaplan-Meier and mixed-effect Cox proportional hazards models with random intercepts for each center. ResultsAmong 318 DCD heart transplants, 216 (68%) were procured via DPP, and 102 (32%) via NRP. Among 22 transplant centers that accepted circulatory-death donors, 3 used NRP exclusively, and 5 used both procurement techniques. After propensity-score matching on recipient and donor factors, there was no significant difference in one-year post-transplant survival (93.1% for NRP vs 91.1% for DPP, p = 0.79) between procurement techniques. ConclusionsNRP and DPP procurements are associated with similar one-year post-transplant survival. If NRP is ethically permissible and improves outcomes for abdominal organs, it should be the preferred procurement technique for DCD hearts. Data availability statementThe data that support the findings of this study are available from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for this study.