Beating Heart Transplants—Overview and Implications for Anesthesiologists

As the demand for heart allografts for transplantation continues to rise, ex vivo organ perfusion strategies are playing an increasingly important role in the preservation of organs from donation after circulatory death and extended-criteria donors. One such method uses the Organ Care System (TransMedics, Andover, MA). Traditionally, this technique of preservation requires 2 periods of warm ischemia and subsequent cardioplegic arrest. In a novel surgical technique pioneered at the authors’ institution, heart allograft implantation no longer requires a second cardioplegic arrest. This article discusses the surgical approach for this procedure, the advantages and disadvantages of this approach, and analogs to current clinical practice to theorize what impact this may have on cardiac transplantation volumes in the future.