New heart transplant method being tested for the first time in the U.S.

A new multicenter trial in the U.S. is testing a transplant procedure to allow more donor hearts to reach waiting patients. In “donation after cardiac death,” or DCD, transplants, physicians retrieve organs from those who died because their heart stopped. Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Wisconsin in Madison just performed their first DCD heart transplant as part of the trial, following Duke University last month. The U.K. and Australia have been using the method for several years now. In the U.S. trial, a yet-to-be approved machine allows the heart to be perfused with warm blood after removal from the donor, and for physicians to assess the organ's function. U.S. transplant laws currently prohibit DCD hearts from being used for transplants, but if the FDA approves the machine for this procedure, it “will expand the donor pool by 30%,” says Dr. Jacob Schroder, who is part of Duke’s DCD heart transplant team.