[Criteria for the acceptable heart donor: maximizing the use of hearts recovered from potential donors in Israel].
The shortage of available donor hearts limits the number of cardiac transplantations worldwide and in Israel as well. This organ shortage results in 15%-20% annual mortality of heart transplant candidates. For the sub-group of hospitalized decompensated heart failure patients depending on continuous inotropic support (Status I), the annual mortality is over 50%. Suboptimal utilization of donor hearts has been one of the reasons for the organ shortage. In 2004, only 42% of the potential donor hearts in Israel were eventually transplanted. The objective of this report is to define guidelines regarding the suitability of potential cardiac donors allowing more liberal criteria for accepting borderline donor hearts. Implementing the new guidelines will permit the utilization of organs that otherwise would have been discarded.
Ben Gal
Tuvia
T
Department of Cardiology, Rabin Medical Center, Campus Beilinson & Shneider, Petah Tikva, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv. bengaltu@gmail.com
Liel-Cohen
Noah
N
Admon
Daniel
D
Freimark
Dov
D
Lavee
Jacob
J
Elami
Amir
A
Sahar
Gideon
G
Sagie
Alex
A
Birk
Einat
E
Cohen
Jonathan
J
Ashkenazi
Tamar
T
Battler
Alex
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006321:Heart / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008875:Middle Aged; D009929:Organ Size; D018579:Patient Selection; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting / Q000379:methods