The Impact of Ex Situ Heart Perfusion in Pediatric Transplantation: An Analysis of the United Network for Organ Sharing Registry

Ex situ heart perfusion (ESHP) has increased the pool of donors in adults. However, this is not true in pediatrics due to lack of devices. Therefore, we sought to understand organ refusal in pediatrics and estimate donor heart usage with ESHP. Donor hearts offered to pediatrics were identified from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) Database (2000-2019). A linear regression model was built to predict average travel speed, and the extended maximum permitted distance with ESHP was calculated. This extended distance was compared with the policy for maximum travel distance. There were 33,708 donor offers (n = 10,807 hearts) to pediatric programs (24.1% [n = 2,604] transplanted). Six percent of the offers (n = 1,832) (n = 771 hearts) were turned down due to distance, with 676 of the hearts never transplanted. Based on the modeling and using an ESHP time of 5.5 hours, 84% (n = 570/676) of hearts turned down as distance could be utilized by pediatric programs. This proportion increased to 100% with 10 hours of support time. By addressing prolonged ischemic time due to distance, ESHP has the potential to increase the number of donors utilized in pediatric candidates. While no device exists for pediatrics, this analysis lends support to the importance of developing this technology.