Heart Procurement and Transplantion

After reading the SNBAL articles for this week, I found it interesting that in order to determine the success of a potential donor kidney for a patient, biopsies, the theoretical number of nephrons, and the analysis of the flow to the kidney can be considered. In a class I took last semester called Entrepreneurial Issues in Biomedical Engineering, a lady from the start-up Organ Transport Systems came to speak to us about the LifeCradle™. The current methods to determine the viability of a heart consist of the transplant surgeon taking a look at the donor heart assessing its color and feel, and then, making his decision. Thus, you could say the viability of the heart is judged in the same way you would judge an apple before buying it. Organ Transport Systems is currently working to improve their device to be able to monitor the heart in such a way that the surgeon would have data to look at that would allow them to make a more informed decision about the viability of the heart. Also, to add to Robin’s post, the technology OTS has developed really is revolutionary in the sense that it will expand the geographical region in which hearts can be transplanted. Like she said, the current window of time organ procurement agencies have for harvesting the organ and then transporting the organ to a transplant surgeon for implantation is only 4-6 hours. Once a heart has been harvested from a donor and a recipient has been found, the hospital will anesthetize the patient while waiting for the organ. However, the chest cavity is not open until the organ arrives and the viability of the heart is established (Depending on the hospital, some surgeons will open the chest cavity before the heart arrives to decrease ischemic time, but most seem to wait until the donor heart arrives.) Also, I remember the lady briefly mentioning that the LifeCrade™ technology perfuses the oxygen-rich solution backwards through the heart, would that negatively affect the heart in anyway?