Successful heart and kidney transplantation from a deceased donor with PCR positive COVID‐19

Abstract

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has had profound effects on organ transplantation partly due to concern for infection transmission. Risk of mortality for waitlisted candidates must be weighed against risk of transmission to the recipient and transplant team.We report our clinical experience of transplanting three patients with organs from a deceased donor who was reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction positive (PCR+) for SARS-CoV-2 within 72 h of procurement. All recipients were informed of the donor's

Organ transplantation using COVID-19-positive deceased donors

“…Despite these early recommendations, reports of organ transplantation using donors known to be actively infected with or recovered from COVID‐19 infection began to emerge. 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 Initial reports came from donors who had previously been infected with COVID‐19 but had subsequently recovered. Later cases included those with lower‐risk donors and recipients who either had a personal history of COVID‐19 infection in the past and/or had antibodies to COVID‐19 present.…”

“…Despite these early recommendations, reports of organ transplantation using donors known to be actively infected with or recovered from COVID‐19 infection began to emerge 11–28 . Initial reports came from donors who had previously been infected with COVID‐19 but had subsequently recovered.…”

The pandemic provides a pathway: What we know and what we need to know about using COVID positive donors

“…None of the 13 transplant recipients developed COVID‐19. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 The authors are to be commended for sharing their experiences and contributing vital data to the existing sparse literature (Table 1 ) on organ transplantation from COVID‐19 positive donors.…”

Coronavirus Disease-2019 and Implications on the Liver

“… 86 In fact, several case reports have described the successful use of SARS-CoV-2 positive donors without documented transmission to the transplant recipient in non-lung solid organ transplant. 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 Given the limited data that exist, no recommendation regarding the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission to the recipient can be made. 12…”