Study finds patients who receive lung transplants from hospital-based donor care units have better outcomes than those who receive them from stand-alone units

A new study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania is the first to examine differences in lung transplant outcomes from organs retrieved from two types of deceased organ donation care facilities operating in the United States. JAMA Network Openprovides insights that can improve the organ donation and transplant process for patients across the country.

In the United States, deceased organ donors have traditionally been cared for in hospitals, where the intensive care and testing needed to rehabilitate the organ, identify transplant patients, and perform organ recovery surgery is carried out.

Over the past two decades, some donors have been transferred from hospitals to Donor Care Units (DCUs), which provide similar services but only for deceased donors. Currently, there are two types of DCUs operating in the United States: freestanding (outside of acute care hospitals) and those located within hospitals.

The researchers analyzed lung donation rates and lung transplant survival rates for nearly 11,000 deceased donors who underwent organ retrieval surgery between April 2017 and June 2022.

The researchers hypothesized that there would be no significant difference in lung transplant survival between organs retrieved from donors managed in these two types of units, but the study showed that while independent donor centers generally have higher donation rates, patients who received lungs in hospital-based DCUs had longer survival times.

“These findings may prompt improvements in organ donor management practices nationwide and ultimately improve the quality and availability of donated organs,” said study leader Emily Vail, MD, MSc, assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and senior research fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics.

The study highlights that the system of care for deceased organ donors is evolving, with the potential to significantly improve organ quality and increase the number of available organs per donor.

Vail's research is especially important given the fragile nature of lung tissue and the strict criteria for lung donation: only around 20% of deceased donors are eligible to donate lungs, making efficient and effective donor management practices essential.

of Gift of Life Donor Care Center The DCU at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine Hospital will open in late 2022 and is one of at least 15 hospital-based DCUs currently operating in the U.S. Gift of Life transplant coordinators work with a multidisciplinary team of intensivists, nurses, respiratory therapists and pharmacists to provide specialized care to deceased organ donors who are diagnosed as brain dead and authorized to donate their organs, and support their families.

Gift of Life Donor Care Centers serve hospitals and donor families throughout eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware.