Who should be delisted from urgent heart transplantation in Germany?

When German heart transplant candidates receive a ventricular assist device (VAD), the indication for Eurotransplant urgency listing is no longer given unless assist device complications occur. We studied survival rates in these patients and compared them with those of patients with urgency listing. The study cohort consists of 377 heart transplant candidates who were listed in urgent status or received a VAD in our center between 2000 and 2007. We defined the following patient groups: group U (n = 193), patients listed in urgent status primarily; group VADinT (n = 219), patients actively listed without urgency (transplantable) after VAD implantation, and group VADinU (n = 99), patients listed in urgent status after VAD implantation. The survival rates during urgent status in groups U and VADinU and those during VAD support without urgency listing in group VADinT were studied. The survival curves of groups U and VADinU were similar, and 1-month survival rates were 97.7% and 95.9%, respectively. One-month survival rate in group VADinT (85.9%) was worse than in group U (p < 0.0001). Survival rates in patients in urgent status both with and without VAD are satisfactory. However, patients with a VAD in "transplantable" status should be rescued under an urgency-based resource allocation algorithm.