Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 24, 2025
Pre-clinical Model of Cardiac Donation after Circulatory Death
Published on: August 2, 2019
Heart Transplantation and Donation After Circulatory Death in Children. A Review of the Technological, Logistical and
Louise Amelia Kenny1,2, Liz Armstrong3, Marius Berman3,4
1Paediatric Heart Unit, Institute of Transplantation, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
Insights
Pediatric heart transplantation using Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) donors is underdeveloped despite advances. Urgent action is needed to establish equitable pediatric DCD heart programs, addressing ethical and logistical barriers for children awaiting transplants.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Transplantation Medicine
- Pediatric Surgery
Background:
- Adult heart transplantation from Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) donors is established in the UK.
- Pediatric DCD donation for non-cardiac organs is successful, but pediatric cardiac transplantation faces significant challenges.
- A critical shortage of pediatric heart donors leads to high annual mortality rates for children awaiting transplants.
Purpose of the Study:
- To highlight the disparity in DCD heart donation between adults and children.
- To identify and address the multifaceted barriers hindering pediatric cardiac DCD programs.
- To advocate for the development of sustainable DCD programs for pediatric heart transplantation.
Main Methods:
- Review of current practices and technological advancements in DCD heart recovery.
- Analysis of ethical, technological, financial, and logistical challenges.
- Description of ongoing efforts to establish a sustainable pediatric DCD cardiac program in the UK.
Main Results:
- Despite novel technologies, pediatric DCD heart transplantation has progressed slowly.
- Significant barriers including ethical concerns and resource limitations impede program development.
- There is a clear need for increased action to address the inequality in pediatric DCD heart donation.
Conclusions:
- An equitable pediatric DCD cardiac program is essential to address the critical donor shortage.
- Urgent and achievable actions are required from responsible bodies to establish such programs.
- Establishing pediatric DCD heart programs will provide valuable insights for international efforts and benefit donor families, recipients, and their families.
Abstract:
Heart transplant for adults following Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) is well established in many parts of the world, including the United Kingdom (UK). Small child DCD hearts have now been recovered in the UK and internationally utilising novel technologies. Despite these recent advances, extension of this practice to pediatric cardiac transplantation has been slow and difficult despite the severe shortage of donors for children leading to a high number of deaths annually of children waiting for heart transplant. This is in direct contrast with the thriving UK programme of adult DCD heart transplant and pediatric DCD donation for non-cardiac organs. There has been insufficient action in addressing this inequality thus far. Barriers to development of a pediatric cardiac DCD programme are multifaceted: ethical concerns, technological paucity, financial and logistical hurdles. We describe the background, live issues, current developments and how we are driving resources toward a sustainable DCD programme for small children in the UK to provide valuable insights to other countries of the elements and principles at play. This is a call to responsible bodies to take urgent and achievable actions to establish an equitable paediatric DCD cardiac programme for donors, recipients and their families.
More Related Videos
07:49Large-Animal Model of Donation after Circulatory Death and Normothermic Regional Perfusion for Cardiac Assessment
Published on: May 10, 2022
08:49Author Spotlight: Enhancing Graft Viability Assessment Through Quantitative Metrics and Innovative Reservoir Systems
Published on: August 2, 2024
