Can Lungs Donated After Circulatory Death Ease a Global Shortage for Children in Need?

Research By: Don Hayes, Jr., MD, MS | David L.S. Morales, MD

Post Date: March 24, 2025 | Publish Date: January 2025

Lung transplantation for children has similar survival outcomes whether the organs were donated after circulatory death or via donation after brain death. But hospital stays were longer for those receiving organs after circulatory death, and the time to developing acute cellular rejection was shorter.

These findings were featured on the cover of the January 2025 issue of the Annals of the American Thoracic Society. The study was led by Don Hayes, Jr., MD, MS, MEd, MBA, medical director of the Lung Transplant Program at Cincinnati Children’s and David L. S. Morales, MD, executive co-director of the Heart Institute.

The findings were based on data from more than 1,400 lung transplants involving children from 2004 to 2018 that were assembled through the International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation Thoracic Organ Transplant Registry. Of these cases, just 34 involved organs donated after circulatory death, a relatively new category of organ donation. Most of the transplants were performed for children with cystic fibrosis.

An ongoing global increase in the numbers of organs donated after circulatory death could reduce waiting times and increase child access to donor lungs, which makes these findings potentially important for transplant surgeons and organ donation policymakers. However, the potential shorter time to acute cellular rejection needs further exploration as more such transplants are performed, the co-authors say.

These results were presented in April 2024 at the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) Conference in Prague. More details are expected to be included in the upcoming ISHLT Registry Report for 2025.

Publication Information

Original title:	A Global Experience of Donation after Circulatory Death for Pediatric Lung Transplantation
Published in:	Annals of the American Thoracic Society
Publish date:	January 2025

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