Only 1 in 3 Donor Hearts Accepted Due to Varying Transplant Rules

As rejection rules differ by state, more hearts for transplant are getting rejected. Only one in three hearts donated are getting accepted due to transplant rules.

Medical researchers are calling for more consistent rules to keep doctors from rejecting hearts that may be potentially good for transplant.

"The inconsistency says that there are higher-risk donor hearts being accepted in some regions, and we know from the data that those recipients are doing well, so if we can safely lower the bar for acceptance, we could increase the number of donor hearts for our patients," Stanford University School of Medicine assistant professor Kiran Khush said.

Khush also said that the United States has been too "conservative" in the past 15 to 20 years in accepting hearts for transplant. He mentioned that this is troubling since there is already a shortage of donors and the number of critically ill patients is on a steady rise.

John Nguyen, a trained nurse, agrees with Khush. "There is likely a significant number of suitable donor hearts that are not getting used," Nguyen said. "Creating a more systematic way of evaluating these hearts based on scientific evidence could increase the number of heart transplants."

Patients often get sicker as they wait for a donor heart to be available for them. Khush admits that they often lose patients because the wait had been too long.

The use of donor hearts have fallen to 32% five years ago from 44% in 1995, according a study performed by the American Journal of Transplantation. Studies suggest that some U.S. doctors may be too strict in approving hearts for transplant. Khush is the lead author of the study.

Out of 82,053 potential donor hearts, only 34% were accepted, 48% were rejected, and about 18% were used for research purposes, Science Daily shares. Some hearts that were rejected by hospitals in the U.S. were used in Canada, and had good outcomes, according to reports.

Some of the main reasons why a donor heart is rejected is due to advanced age, donor co-morbidities (diabetes, hypertension), and small size. A donation is ruled out if the donor has hepatitis C, heart disease, or HIV.