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Geographic Differences in Lung Transplant Volume and Donor Availability During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Luke Benvenuto1, Mark E Snyder2, Meghan Aversa1
1Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY.
Background:
Regional variation in lung transplantation practices due to local coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevalence may cause geographic disparities in access to lung transplantation.
Methods:
Using the United Network for Organ Sharing registry, we conducted a descriptive analysis of lung transplant volume, donor lung volume, new waitlist activations, and waiting list deaths at high-volume lung transplant centers during the first 3 months of the pandemic (March 1. 2020, to May 30, 2020) and we compared it to the same period in the preceding 5 years.
Results:
Lung transplant volume decreased by 10% nationally and by a median of 50% in high COVID-19 prevalence centers (range -87% to 80%) compared with a median increase of 10% (range -87% to 80%) in low prevalence centers (P-for-trend 0.006). Donation services areas with high COVID-19 prevalence experienced a greater decrease in organ availability (-28% range, -72% to -11%) compared with low prevalence areas (+7%, range -20% to + 55%, P-for-trend 0.001). Waiting list activations decreased at 18 of 22 centers. Waiting list deaths were similar to the preceding 5 years and independent of local COVID-19 prevalence (P-for-trend 0.36).
Conclusions:
Regional variation in transplantation and donor availability in the early months of the pandemic varied by local COVID-19 activity.
