Early Impact of MMaT-3 Policy on Liver Transplant Waitlist Outcomes for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

ABSTRACT: To reduce the disparity in access to liver transplant (LT), United Network for Organ Sharing implemented an exception policy in May 2019, which capped hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) exception score to the median Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) at transplant within the donor service area minus 3 points (MMaT-3) after the 6-mo wait period. We aimed to evaluate how this policy affected HCC waitlist outcomes.

Methods

Using United Network for Organ Sharing data, we analyzed waitlist outcomes in HCC patients at the time they received exception points from in the pre-MMaT era (August 15, 2017, to November 15, 2018) and MMaT era (June 1, 2019, to August 30, 2020). Comparisons were made within the HCC group and HCC versus non-HCC (at time of listing) groups in the pre-MMaT and MMaT

SUBMITTER: Shaikh A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9005245 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature