The organ procurement costs of expanding deceased donor organ acceptance criteria: Evidence from a cost function model

Abstract

A potential solution to the deceased donor organ shortage is to expand donor acceptability criteria. The procurement cost implications of using nonstandard donors is unknown. Using 5years of US organ procurement organization (OPO) data, we built a cost function model to make cost projections: the total cost was the dependent variable; production outputs, including the number of donors and organs procured, were the independent variables. In the model, procuring one kidney or procuring both kidneys from double/en bloc transplantation from a single-organ donor resulted in a marginal cost of $55k (95% confidence interval [CI] $28k, $99k) per kidney, and procuring only the liver from a single-organ donor results in a marginal cost of $41k (95% CI $12k, $69k) per liver. Procuring two kidneys for two candidates from a donor lowered the marginal cost to $36k (95% CI $22k, $66k) per kidney, and procuring two kidneys and a liver lowers the marginal cost to $24k (95% CI $17 k, $45 k) per organ. Economies of scale were observed, where high OPO volume was correlated with lower costs. Despite higher cost per organ than for standard donors, kidney transplantation from nonstandard donors remained cost-effective based on contemporary US data.