Hearts from donors who died with COVID-19 can still be used in transplants

By Mark Waghorn via SWNS

Hearts from donors who died with COVID-19 can still be safely used in transplants, according to new research.

A study of dozens of recipients found they are as safe as ones from people without the virus.

Lead author Samuel Kim said: "These findings suggest we may be able to be more aggressive about accepting donors when patients are in dire need of an organ for heart transplantation."

They are based on the first 84 people to be given hearts from COVID-19-positive donors.
There was no increase in mortality or complications.

What is more, none died from respiratory causes or infections. The researchers were surprised by the results.

Kim, a medical student at the University of California, Los Angeles, said: "Specifically, we thought death from respiratory or lung-related causes would be a problem among recipients receiving donor hearts with COVID-19.

"Yet, we found no such differences, and in fact, this study offers early evidence COVID-19-positive donor hearts may be as safe as hearts without COVID-19 for heart transplantation."

The NHS says there are no confirmed cases of transmission through organ donation.
But if someone has the coronavirus they will not be able to donate.

Demand for heart transplants has doubled in the past 30 years. In the UK, hundreds are on the waiting list.

Organ donations plunged by almost a third during the pandemic owing to many potential candidates dying in the community rather than in the hospital.

Kim said: "Despite the increased need for this operation, there is a continued shortage of available donor organs for people in need of transplantation.

"The pandemic made things worse with an increased rate of donors testing positive for COVID-19, which generally renders the donors unsuitable for transplantation.

"However, several academic centers have started to use COVID-19-positive donor hearts for transplantation in recent months and have reported good results."

Kim's team analyzed data from the United Network for Organ Sharing, looking at all 3,289 adult heart transplants in the US from February 2021 to March 2022.

Death rates in the hospital and within 30 days of the procedure were similar for both groups.

There was also no significant difference in problems such as graft failure, where the body rejects the new organ, and lung conditions.

The average hospital stay for those receiving a COVID-19-positive donor heart was 15 days - against 17 days for patients whose donor did not have the virus.

More than 96 percent of the former survived the first 30 days - almost exactly the same as the latter.

None of the four deaths were linked to COVID-19. Organ rejection occurred in less than two and a half percent, and one percent, respectively.

Professor Eldrin Lewis, a heart transplant specialist at Stanford University, California, who was not involved in the study, said: "These findings provide evidence outcomes were similar at 30 days post-transplant among patients who received COVID-19-positive donor hearts, so the potential risks appear to be lower than expected."

He added: "In turn, this may help to address the shortages in donor's hearts for transplantation and reduce waiting times since people often get sicker as heart failure progresses while waiting for a donor heart to become available."

The study will be presented at an American Heart Association meeting in Chicago next weekend. Its guidelines recommend transplantation for advanced heart failure.

Symptoms include shortness of breath, fatigue and swelling. They affect the quality of life l and may lead to recurrent hospital stays.

There were 3,658 heart transplants carried out in the US in 2020 - compared to 1,676 in 1988. More than 3,400 people are currently waiting for a heart.

As of March 31, 2022, there were 328 patients on the active transplant list in the UK. The more people who register to donate organs, the more lives can be saved.