Moving Beyond the Perfect Donor: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Optimizing Donor Utilization.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite a growing demand for donor hearts, more than two-thirds of viable hearts are discarded in North America. Our initiative sought to improve donor heart utilization by reviewing institutional donor acceptance practices and implementing targeted interventions.

Objectives

Our aim was to increase donor heart utilization rate to 20% and reduce the rate of missed viable opportunities to ≤10% within a 12-month period, and assess the incidence of primary graft dysfunction preintervention and postintervention.

Methods

This prospective single-center study included all donor heart offers from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2023. Donor demographics, clinical data, and utilization outcomes were collected. Missed viable opportunities were defined by criteria incl

SUBMITTER: Venkatraman A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12717586 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature