title: Cardiac transplantation can be safely performed with low donor-to-recipient body weight ratios.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  United Network for Organ Sharing adult heart transplant criteria recommend against using same-sex donors with a donor-recipient body weight ratio <0.7. The same criteria recommend against a female donor to male recipient body weight ratio <0.9. We attempted to determine if transplantation with low donor-recipient body weight ratios can be safely performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Transplants with same-sex donor-recipient body weight ratio <0.7 and female donor-male recipient body weight ratio <0.9 were compared with age- and sex-matched control subjects with ideally matched donor weights. Of the 123 patients undergoing transplantation, 23 met low donor-recipient body weight ratio criteria. This cohort was compared with 22 ideally weight-matched patients. There was no difference in survival at 1, 5, and 10 years (P = .68). Freedom from rejection (52.2 vs 50.0%; P = 1.0), creatinine clearance change (-1.3 vs 5.7 mL/min; P = .88), duration of inotropic support (191.5 vs 208.8 h; P = .65), and duration of mechanical ventilation (156.3 vs 84.5 h; P = .52) were similar. Intensive care (290.5 vs 368.6 h; P = .71) and hospital length of stay (35.4 vs 36.7 d; P = .94) were not different.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Accepted donor-recipient weight match criteria may be extended to increase the donor pool.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Sharven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Taghavi
authors.forename: Lynn M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Stacey H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Brann
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gaughan
authors.forename: Abeel A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Mangi
mesh_terms: D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D005791:Patient Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012449:Safety; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013997:Time Factors; D014019:Tissue Donors; D014481:United States