Almost 40-year outcomes of heart transplants from uncontrolled cardiac arrest donors: single-center experience

Heart transplantation (HT) remains the best treatment for patients affected by advanced heart failure. While the waiting list for HT keeps growing, the shortage of available donor organs remains a matter of concern. In recent years, the number of marginal donors has significantly grown. In certain countries, according to their legislation, donation after circulatory death (DCD) has become a source for cardiac grafts [1] despite concerns about the graft’s performance due to a controlled cardiac arrest period. Uncontrolled cardiac arrest (uCA) before donation represents a frequent finding in suitable heart donors, and it is not considered a contraindication for HT nor a marginal donor criterion. However, these grafts’ effect on very long-term outcomes after HT is still unknown [2, 3]. We aimed to analyze early and late outcomes of HT from donors who suffered from uCA.