Breaking barriers in cardiac donation after circulatory death

Background: Heart transplant (HT) from controlled donation after circulatory death (cDCD) is an emerging strategy that is rapidly expanding and may help increase the heart donor pool.

Materials and methods: The use of thoracoabdominal normothermic regional perfusion with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation device has allowed to perform HT after cDCD in our country. We present a successful case of heart transplantation using a graft from cDCD with 201 min cold ischemia time.

Discussion and conclusion: HT from cDCD could be a good alternative to brain dead donation. This experience suggests than nonlocal cardiac from cDCD could tolerate long periods of cold ischemia time and break the main barriers with this technique.