A team of Australian doctors has transplanted hearts in DCD (donated after circulatory death) in two patients, a huge breakthrough that may help improve the organ donation process.
In an article published on Friday, October 24, in St. Vincent's Hospital, a group of doctors working in the Heart Lung Transplant Unit has discovered how preserve "dead hearts" and then transplant them successfully to two patients who were already diagnosed to have heart failure in their end stage. Dead hearts are those that are no longer beating.
This is a monumental achievement as far as transplants are concerned since up until the successful operations, the hearts that should be transplanted are those that are coming from brain-dead patients. This means that even if the brain no longer functions, the heart still works including beating and circulating blood all over the body.
Because of the very strict regulations when it comes to the condition or the type of organ that can be donated and transplanted, many patients remain in the organ recipient list, usually for many years.
Nevertheless, these dead hearts still have to be preserved well for them to be reliable donated organs. To achieve this, the doctors have to create a sterile circuit that is responsible for keeping the organ warm and beating. They have also produced a special type of solution that allows them to preserve and observe the heart while it's waiting to be transplanted to a patient.
The system has been going on for months and has helped the transplant unit reduce the gap between donors and recipients, as well as demand and supply. They are able to perform more heart surgeries especially since the novel box allows them to transport dead hearts that may otherwise be considered as unsuitable for such movement. They can also now procure hearts from very distant areas.
Using DCD has also been used for other donated organs like lungs and kidney, but this will be the first time that it's been made possible for hearts.
Meanwhile, the patients who have received the DCD hearts are doing remarkably well.