Practice Patterns of Liver Allograft Acceptance From Donors After Circulatory Death at US Transplant Centers

United States transplant centers have low rates of liver allograft utilization from donation after circulatory death (DCD) donors. Prolonged functional donor warm ischemic time (f-DWIT) is associated with worse outcomes; however, center practices regarding f-DWIT are unclear. As emerging technologies are changing the landscape of DCD liver transplantation, this study aims to gain insights into the practices of US centers around DCD liver allograft utilization.

An electronic survey was distributed to transplant surgeons at US transplant centers from May to July 2022.

Responses were received from 108 transplant surgeons, of which, 44.4% reported their center's annual DCD liver transplant volume as <10%, and 40.7% reported volumes of 10% to 30%. Warm ischemic time (WIT) was the principal donor variable considered by accepting surgeons (72.2%). Center definition of f-DWIT varied widely, with at least 14 definitions being used. Nearly half of the surgeons (48.6%) defined f-DWIT as time from systolic blood pressure (SBP) <80 mm Hg or oxygen saturation (Sp0₂) <80% to flush; 21.5% defined f-DWIT as ≤30 minutes from withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy to flush. Nearly 13% of centers use normothermic machine perfusion for most of their DCD liver allografts. More than half of surgeons transplanted at least 1 DCD liver allograft recovered after normothermic regional perfusion.

Differences in the definition of f-DWIT and acceptance patterns of DCD liver allografts limit the ability to evaluate patient and allograft outcomes. As the DCD landscape is evolving, consensus definitions and granular databases can improve the transplant community's ability to evaluate outcome data and utilization from DCD liver allografts.