1. [Viability testing of discarded donor livers; More livers fit for transplantation because of machine perfusion].
- Author
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van Leeuwen OB, Brüggenwirth IMA, Haring MPD, Lantinga VA, de Meijer VE, and Porte RJ
- Subjects
- Humans, Netherlands, Organ Preservation instrumentation, Perfusion instrumentation, Liver surgery, Liver Transplantation methods, Organ Preservation methods, Perfusion methods, Tissue Donors, Tissue and Organ Procurement methods
- Abstract
In the Netherlands, the average quality of donor organs continues to decrease as a result of the increasing life expectancy, as well as higher incidence of obesity, diabetes mellitus, and other comorbidities in the general population. Storing donor organs on ice, the current standard practice, appears to be inadequate for preserving these high-risk donor livers. Consequently, an increasing number of donor organs is discarded for transplantation. Over the past years, a novel dynamic preservation technique using a machine perfusion device has been developed. Preservation by machine perfusion enables optimisation and viability testing of high-risk donor livers prior to liver transplantation. A large proportion of initially declined donor livers appeared to be suitable for transplantation after evaluation during machine perfusion. Testing of donor livers has led to a significant increase in the number of liver transplantations performed in the Netherlands. This technique has the potential for use in other organs, such as kidney allografts.
- Published
- 2021