IMR Press / RCM / Volume 23 / Issue 8 / DOI: 10.31083/j.rcm2308285
Open Access Review
Strategies for Expanding Donors Pool in Heart Transplantation
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1 Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Heart and Lung Transplant Program, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL 32224, USA
2 Research Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL 32224, USA
*Correspondence: jacob.samuel@mayo.edu (Samuel Jacob)
Academic Editor: Michael Dandel
Rev. Cardiovasc. Med. 2022, 23(8), 285; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.rcm2308285
Submitted: 5 May 2022 | Revised: 20 June 2022 | Accepted: 14 July 2022 | Published: 15 August 2022
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Heart transplant remains the criterion standard treatment for patients in end-stage heart failure. Improvement in the post-heart transplant outcomes in the last decade has contributed to increased demand for organs. Worldwide each year, more than 5000 heart transplants are performed and 50,000 people become candidates for heart transplant. In the last 50 years, there have been several attempts to expand donor criteria to increase the donor pool. Despite making hepatitis C virus, opioid overdose death, old age allowable and changing the allocation system, the gap between supply and demand is widening and unfortunately, thousands die every year waiting due to the critical shortage of organs. New technologies for heart donation after circulatory death have emerged, particularly normothermic regional organ perfusion and ex-vivo heart perfusion using organ care systems. However, these technologies still do not fill the gap. Continuous advancements in areas such as regenerative medicine and xenotransplantation, among others, are needed to overcome the shortage of heart donors for heart transplantation.

Keywords
heart donor
donation after circulatory death
normothermic regional perfusion
bioengineered hearts
xenotransplantation
reparable hearts
hepatitis C donor
overdose donors
COVD donors
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