Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha on Jan. 3 performed its first heart transplant using an emerging method, donation after cardiac death, which allows surgeons to revive a donor heart after it has stopped beating, local news radio station KFAB reports.
"With this technique, we are able to restore the blood flow through the heart before it undergoes irreversible damage," Marian Urban, MD, PhD, cardiothoracic surgeon at Nebraska Medical Center, told the station.
The medical center joins NYU Langone Health and Nashville-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which also recently performed heart transplants using the method.
Donation after cardiac death is gaining traction in the U.S., with the FDA greenlighting the method in December for use in a clinical trial across 25 sites. Researchers at Vanderbilt University have said it could increase the donor pool by at least 30 percent.
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