DCD; Donor; Heart transplant; PGD; Recipient; Regional-differences; Surgery; Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine; Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine; Transplantation
Abstract :
[en] [en] BACKGROUND: Donation after the circulatory determination of death (DCD) heart transplantation (HT) is becoming more widely adopted across the United States (US) and Europe.
OBJECTIVE: This study compared donor and recipient demographics, intraoperative parameters, and outcomes between DCD HT centers in Europe and the US that contributed to the Outcomes after DCD Cardiac Transplantation Database.
METHODS: This was a retrospective observational study across 22 HT centers in Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom (UK), and the US. All patients undergoing DCD HT at participating centers, from the start of each center's DCD program through 01/01/2023, were included with censor date 01/01/2024. The primary outcome was 1-year survival. Secondary outcomes included severe primary graft dysfunction and incidence of acute cellular rejection.
RESULTS: Data from 223 patients in Europe and 281 in the US were analyzed. DCD donors in Europe were significantly older (37 years vs 28 years; p < 0.001). Recipients in Europe had inferior 1-year survival (86.6% vs 91.8%; p = 0.043), but 1-month and 3-years survival were similar. 1-year survival in the direct procurement and preservation (DPP) cohort was significantly higher in the US group (91.2% vs 82.6%; p = 0.02). In the thoraco-abdominal normothermic regional perfusion (taNRP) cohort 1-year survival was similar between Europe and the US. Recipients in Europe had higher use of mechanical circulatory assist post-transplant (17.9% vs 11%; p = 0.03).
CONCLUSION: This study further confirms the safety and efficacy of DCD HT across centers in the US and Europe, despite important differences in donor and recipient demographics and clinical outcomes. Continued collection of international data may identify opportunities to improve outcomes.
Disciplines :
Cardiovascular & respiratory systems Surgery
Author, co-author :
Louca, John O; Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom,, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom. Electronic address: jol20@cam.ac.uk
Öchsner, Marco; Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom,, LMU University Hospital Munich, Munich, Germany
Shah, Ashish; Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
Schlendorf, Kelly; Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
Lima, Brian ; Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
Wang, Chen Chia ; Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
Siddiqi, Hasan ; Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
Irshad, Ali; Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
Schroder, Jacob; Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
Casalinova, Sarah ; Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
Milano, Carmelo; Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
Khush, Kiran K ; Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Skoda, Anette; Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Luikart, Helen; Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Ashley, Euan; Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Moazami, Nader ; NYU Langone Health, New York, NY
James, Les; NYU Langone Health, New York, NY
Dar, Owais; Harefield Hospital (A Division of Guys and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust), London, United Kingdom, School of Cardiovascular Medicine & Sciences Kings College London, London, United Kingdom
Konicoff, Mailen; Harefield Hospital (A Division of Guys and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust), London, United Kingdom
Urban, Marian ; Medical Center, University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE
Um, John ; Medical Center, University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE
Castleberry, Anthony ; Medical Center, University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE
Hoffman, Jordan R H ; Anschutz Medical Center, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO
Cain, Michael T; Anschutz Medical Center, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO
Fetten, Katharina; Baylor Scott and White Health, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX
Meyer, Dan ; Baylor Scott and White Health, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX
Xu, Addison ; Baylor Scott and White Health, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX
González-Vilchez, Francisco; Hosp Marques de Valdecilla, Santander, Spain
Domínguez-Gil, Beatriz; Organización Nacional de Trasplantes, Madrid, Spain
Royo-Villanova, Mario ; Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca, Murcia, Spain
Garrido, Iris; Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca, Murcia, Spain
Cánovas, Sergio J; Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca, Murcia, Spain
Brouckaert, Janne ; University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Vandendriessche, Katrien ; University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Rega, Filip ; University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Tchana-Sato, Vincent ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences cliniques > Chirurgie cardio-vasculaire
Berman, Marius; Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Bae, James; Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Asemota, Nicole; Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Sinha, Sanjay; Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Pettit, Stephen ; Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Messer, Simon; Golden Jubilee National Hospital, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Large, Stephen; Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Bhagra, Sai ; Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Singh, T.P., Cherikh, W.S., Hsich, E., et al. (2023). Graft survival in primary thoracic organ transplant recipients: A special report from the International Thoracic Organ Transplant Registry of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, 42(10), 1321–1333.
Bhagra, S.K., Pettit, S., & Parameshwar, J. (2019). Cardiac transplantation: indications, eligibility and current outcomes. Heart, 105(3), 252–260.
Bakhtiyar, S.S., Godfrey, E.L., Ahmed, S., Lamba, H., Morgan, J., Loor, G., … & Rana, A. (2020). Survival on the heart transplant waiting list. JAMA cardiology, 5(11), 1227–1235.
Simmonds L, Reyes M, Rushton S. (2024). Annual report on heart transplantation report for 2023/2024 (1 April 2014-31 March 2024). Accessed at: .
Rega, F., Lebreton, G., Para, M., Michel, S., Schramm, R., Begot, E., … & Osorio, E. (2024). Hypothermic oxygenated perfusion of the donor heart in heart transplantation: the short-term outcome from a randomised, controlled, open-label, multicentre clinical trial. The Lancet, 404(10453), 670–682
Messer, S., Cernic, S., Page, A., Berman, M., Kaul, P., Colah, S., … & Large, S.R. (2020). A 5-year single-center early experience of heart transplantation from donation after circulatory-determined death donors. The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, 39(12), 1463–1475.
Louca J, Öchsner M, Shah A, et al. The international experience of in-situ recovery of the DCD heart: a multicentre retrospective observational study. EClin Med; 2023:58.
Jawitz, O.K., Raman, V., DeVore, A.D., et al. (2020). Increasing the United States heart transplant donor pool with donation after circulatory death. The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, 159(5), e307-e309.
Barnard, C.N. (1967). Human cardiac transplant: An interim report of a successful operation performed at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town. South African Medical Journal, 41(48), 1271–1274.
Dhital, K.K., Iyer, A., Connellan, M., Chew, H.C., Gao, L., Doyle, A., … & Macdonald, P. (2015). Adult heart transplantation with distant procurement and ex-vivo preservation of donor hearts after circulatory death: a case series. The Lancet, 385(9987), 2585–2591.
Gerosa, G., Battista Luciani, G., Pradegan, N., Tarzia, V., Lena, T., Zanatta, P., … & Rinaldi, M. (2024). Against Odds of Prolonged Warm Ischemia: Early Experience With DCD Heart Transplantation After 20-Minute No-Touch Period. Circulation, 150(17), 1391–1393.
Schroder, J.N., Patel, C.B., Devore, A.D., Bryner, B.S., Casalinova, S., Shah, A., … & D’Alessandro, D.A. (2023). Transplantation outcomes with donor hearts after circulatory death. New England Journal of Medicine, 388(23), 2121–2131.
International Report on Organ Donation and Transplantation Activities 2023. Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation (GODT). Available at: .
Joshi, Y., Scheuer, S., Chew, H., Qiu, M.R., Soto, C., Villanueva, J., … & Macdonald, P.S. (2023). Heart transplantation from DCD donors in Australia: lessons learned from the first 74 cases. Transplantation, 107(2), 361–371
Pérez-Blanco, A., González-Vilchez, F., González-Costello, J., Royo-Villanova, M., Miñambres, E., Cuenca, J.J., … & Domínguez-Gil, B. (2025). DCDD heart transplantation with thoraco-abdominal normothermic regional perfusion and static cold storage: The experience in Spain. American Journal of Transplantation.
Hoffman, J.R., McMaster, W.G., Rali, A.S., et al. (2021). Early US experience with cardiac donation after circulatory death (DCD) using normothermic regional perfusion. The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, 40(11), 1408–1418.
Louca, J.O., Manara, A., Messer, S., et al. (2023). Getting out of the box: the future of the UK donation after circulatory determination of death heart programme. EClinicalMedicine, 66.
Louca, J.O., Öchsner, M., Bhagra, S., et al., (2025). Outcomes after DCD Cardiac Transplantation: An international, multicenter retrospective study. JACC: Heart Failure.
Wayda, B., Angleitner, P., Smits, J.M., van Kins, A., Berchtold-Herz, M., De Pauw, M., … & Zuckermann, A.O. (2023). Disparities in donor heart acceptance between the USA and Europe: clinical implications. European Heart Journal, 44(44), 4665–4674.
Moayedi, Y., Rodenas-Alesina, E., Mueller, B., Fan, C.P. S., Cherikh, W.S., Stehlik, J., … & Khush, K.K. (2023). Rethinking donor and recipient risk matching in Europe and North America: using heart transplant predictors of donor and recipient risk. Circulation: Heart Failure, 16(5), e009994.
Kobashigawa, J., Zuckermann, A., Macdonald, P., Leprince, P., Esmailian, F., Luu, M., … & Wagner, F. (2014). Report from a consensus conference on primary graft dysfunction after cardiac transplantation. The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, 33(4), 327–340
Stewart, S., Winters, G.L., Fishbein, M.C., Tazelaar, H.D., Kobashigawa, J., Abrams, J., … & Billingham, M.E. (2005). Revision of the 1990 working formulation for the standardization of nomenclature in the diagnosis of heart rejection. The Journal of heart and lung transplantation, 24(11), 1710–1720.
Virtanen, P., Gommers, R., Oliphant, T.E., et al.(2020). SciPy 1.0: fundamental algorithms for scientific computing in Python. Nature methods, 17(3), 261–272
McKinney, W. (2010, June). Data structures for statistical computing in Python. In SciPy (Vol. 445, No. 1, pp. 51–56).
Su, P.F., Chi, Y., Li, C.I., Shyr, Y., & Liao, Y.D.(2011). Analyzing survival curves at a fixed point in time for paired and clustered right-censored data. Computational statistics & data analysis, 55(4), 1617–1628.
Kahan, B.C., & Harhay, M.O. (2015). Many multicenter trials had few events per center, requiring analysis via random-effects models or GEEs. Journal of clinical epidemiology, 68(12), 1504–1511.
Singh T.P., Cherikh W.S., Hsich E., Lewis A., Perch M., Kian S., Hayes D. Jr, Potena L., Stehlik J., Zuckermann A., Cogswell R.; International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. Graft survival in primary thoracic organ transplant recipients: A special report from the International Thoracic Organ Transplant Registry of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2023 Oct;42(10):1321–1333. doi: 10.1016/j.healun.2023.07.017.
Guzman-Bofarull, J., Ródenas-Alesina, E., Moayedi, Y., Truby, L., Rivas-Lasarte, M., Foroutan, F., … & Farrero, M. (2025). Regional differences in primary graft dysfunction: A report from the international consortium on PGD. The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation.
Hatami, S., White, C.W., Shan, S., et al. (2019). Myocardial functional decline during prolonged ex situ heart perfusion. The Annals of thoracic surgery, 108(2), 499–507
Hatami, S., Qi, X., Khan, M., et al. (2023). Oxidative stress and related metabolic alterations are induced in ex situ perfusion of donated hearts regardless of the ventricular load or leukocyte depletion. American Journal of Transplantation, 23(4), 475–483.
Jernryd, V., Stehlik, J., Metzsch, C., Lund, L.H., Smith, J.G., Andersson, B., … & Nilsson, J. (2025). Donor age and ischemic time in heart transplantation–implications for organ preservation. The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, 44(3), 364–375.
Kugathasan, L., Rayner, D.G., Wang, S.M., Rodenas-Alesina, E., Orchanian-Cheff, A., Stehlik, J., … & Alba, A.C. (2024). Induction therapy in heart transplantation: A systematic review and network meta-analysis for developing evidence-based recommendations. Clinical transplantation, 38(5), e15326.
Marrero, W.J., Lavieri, M.S., Guikema, S.D., Hutton, D.W., & Parikh, N.D. (2021). A machine learning approach for the prediction of overall deceased donor organ yield. Surgery, 170(5), 1561–1567.
Thomas, J., Chen, Q., Roach, A., Wolfe, S., Osho, A.A., Sundaram, V., … & Catarino, P. (2023). Donation after circulatory death heart procurement strategy impacts utilization and outcomes of concurrently procured abdominal organs. The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, 42(7), 993–1001.
Bekki, Y., Croome, K.P., Myers, B., Sasaki, K., & Tomiyama, K. (2023). Normothermic regional perfusion can improve both utilization and outcomes in DCD liver, kidney, and pancreas transplantation. Transplantation Direct, 9(3), e1450
Boucek, M.M., Mashburn, C., Dunn, S.M., Frizell, R., Edwards, L., Pietra, B., & Campbell, D. (2008). Pediatric heart transplantation after declaration of cardiocirculatory death. New England Journal of Medicine, 359(7), 709–714.
Manara, A., Shemie, S.D., Large, S., Healey, A., Baker, A., Badiwala, M., … & Watson, C.J. (2020). Maintaining the permanence principle for death during in situ normothermic regional perfusion for donation after circulatory death organ recovery: a United Kingdom and Canadian proposal. American Journal of Transplantation, 20(8), 2017–2025.
Royo-Villanova, M., Sánchez, J.M., Moreno-Monsalve, T., Contreras, J., Ortín, A., Vargas, H., … & Domínguez-Gil, B. (2025). A scintigraphic look at the dead donor rule in donation after the circulatory determination of death with the use of normothermic regional perfusion: A single-center interventional trial. American Journal of Transplantation.
Royo-Villanova, M., Miñambres, E., Sánchez, J.M., Torres, E., Manso, C., Ballesteros, M.Á., … & Domínguez-Gil, B. (2024). Maintaining the permanence principle of death during normothermic regional perfusion in controlled donation after the circulatory determination of death: results of a prospective clinical study. American Journal of Transplantation, 24(2), 213–221.
Sun, H., Saeedi, P., Karuranga, S., Pinkepank, M., Ogurtsova, K., Duncan, B.B., … & Magliano, D.J. (2022). IDF Diabetes Atlas: Global, regional and country-level diabetes prevalence estimates for 2021 and projections for 2045. Diabetes research and clinical practice, 183, 109119.
Ahmed, H.F., Kulshrestha, K., Kennedy, J.T., Gomez-Guzman, A., Greenberg, J.W., Hossain, M.M., … & Morales, D.L. (2024). Donation after circulatory death significantly reduces waitlist times while not changing post–heart transplant outcomes: A United Network for Organ Sharing Analysis. The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, 43(3), 461–470.