Modern ideas in heart donor selection criteria

Abstract

With the limited capacity of the available donor pool and the simultaneously growing demand for heart transplantation, expanding the heart donor selection criteria as one of the ways of increasing the availability of organ transplantation, and particularly donor heart, has become a challenge. On one hand, the use of expanded criteria donors increases the number of transplants and reduces the time spent on the waiting list. On the other hand, however, it increases the risk of adverse transplant outcomes. Accordingly, high-risk donors require a more thorough objective assessment using predictive models, while organs obtained from expanded criteria donors, require optimal selection of a donor-recipient pair. Analysis of global and national studies presented in this review reveals the depth of the current problem of heart donor selection.