More than 4,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for a new heart, that’s according to the organization Donate Life America. Anxiety, fear and frustration are some of the emotions people go through while waiting for a lifesaving organ. Dr. Lisa LeMond, a Mayo Clinic cardiologist, says perfusion technology, sometimes called “heart in a box,” is giving hope to transplant patients. Watch the video from the Mayo Clinic.
In 2021, the MGH Transplant Center completed 43 heart transplants – the hospital’s third-highest annual transplant volume in the program’s history despite challenges driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. This success was reflected in this year’s Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients’ list of national transplant program outcomes, with Mass General having one of the best overall performances in the U.S.
“The transplant program has grown significantly over the past five years,” says Greg Lewis, MD, medical director of the Cardiac Transplantation Program. “We now perform about 1% of the international volume here at Mass General.”
Read more from Massachusetts General Hospital.
A Massachusetts General Hospital investigator explains how the innovative DCD practice addresses both waitlist issues and transplant center’s capabilities.
A relatively new method of evaluating would-be donor hearts may revolutionize the capability of transplant centers helping patients in dire need while on the US waitlist.
At institutions including Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), it’s already making a difference in vital heart transplant resourcing and strategy. Read the full story in HCPLive.