Assessment of potential heart donors: A statement from the French heart transplant community

Abstract

Assessment of potential donors is an essential part of heart transplantation. Despite the shortage of donor hearts, donor heart procurement from brain-dead organ donors remains low in France, which may be explained by the increasing proportion of high-risk donors, as well as the mismatch between donor assessment and the transplant team's expectations. Improving donor and donor heart assessment is essential to improve the low utilization rate of available donor hearts without increasing post-transplant recipient mortality. This document provides information to practitioners involved in brain-dead donor management, evaluation and selection, concerning the place of medical history, electrocardiography, cardiac imaging, biomarkers and haemodynamic and arrhythmia assessment in the characterization of potential heart donors.

Keywords: Brain death; Devenir après transplantation; Don d’organe; Donor assessment; Heart transplantation; Mort encéphalique; Organ donation; Transplant outcomes; Transplantation cardiaque; Évaluation des donneurs.