Surgeons at NYU Langone Health have performed a successful heart-lung transplant on a woman with end-stage cardiac and pulmonary disease using an emerging transplant technique called donation after circulatory death, according to a Jan. 21 case study from the New York City-based health system.
The method involves using donor organs from a patient who's died of cardiac arrest, even if he or she does not meet formal brain death criteria needed for typical organ donation processes. The patient, a 53-year-old woman, underwent the transplant procedure this summer as part of a pilot study NYU Langone transplant surgeons launched in January 2020 to assess the technique's efficacy.
Clinicians recommended the rare, life-saving treatment for the patient after exhausting all other treatment options. While NYU Langone is one of few health systems in the country to perform combined heart-lung transplants, clinicians knew it was unlikely the patient would obtain donor organs through traditional means due to her status on the United Network for Organ Sharing list.
"Unfortunately, the procedure is rarely performed as a result of the scarcity of organs from donation after brain death, which results in untenable delays for patients waiting for a suitable donor," said Nader Moazami, MD, NYU Langone's chief of heart and lung transplant and mechanical circulatory support, and surgical director of heart transplantation at the system's Transplant Institute.
The patient was discharged from a rehabilitation facility six weeks after the procedure. She had a dry cough three months after the transplant, but was otherwise doing well, according to the case study.
NYU Langone surgeons said the donation after circulatory death technique could help more patients who are unlikely to receive donor organs through the UNOS network undergo life-saving transplants.
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