Donor heart before transplant
A healthy and generous heart is never judged only by its cover. This is a donor heart perfused with the Organ care system, which keeps it warm, perfused with oxygenated blood and functioning as they would inside the body while they are transported for transplant instead of putting them on ice as has been the standard for years!! Heart transplantation is the gold standard treatment for end-stage heart failure. One of the limiting factors of maximizing donor heart utilization is distance between the donor hospital and the recipient hospital. Traditionally, the donor hearts are harvested and transported in a cold storage. Prolonged cold ischemia time is one of the risk factors for primary graft failure and early mortality. Therefore, donor hearts have been allocated to the recipient hospitals at the distance at which transport does not take long especially for recipients with mechanical circulatory support or from marginal donors. This system of tubes and machine is the only ex vivo heart perfusion platform with warm, oxygenated, and nutrient-enriched donor blood. Warm oxygenated blood is pumped into the aorta, perfusing the coronary arteries. The coronary sinus flow then passes through the tricuspid valve and is ejected by the right ventricle into a pulmonary artery cannula, and returned to the blood reservoir. The perfusate includes insulin, antibiotics methylprednisolone, sodium bicarbonate, multivitamins, and fresh donor blood. Pulsatile flow is generated by a diaphragmatic pump. The system shortens the cold ischemia time by maintaining the heart in warm perfused state during transport and might increase safe retrieval distance, decrease the incidence of primary graft failure, and potentially allow for increase in number of heart transplantation.
Hello all the way from SA, we're the ones who perfomed the first heart transplant.