immunology allergic disorders
Lung and Heart Lung Transplantation
Heart donors
Almost all donated hearts come from brain-dead donors, who are usually required to be<60 years and have normal cardiac function and no history of coronary artery disease or other heart disorders. Donor and recipient must have compatible ABO blood types, and appropriate heart size is critical. Trials have successfully used an in vitro pump system that modifies cell metabolism in the donor heart to help preserve the explanted hearts during transport, and thus prolong transplant viability > 4 to 6 hours and greatly improve cardiac function after reperfusion. Recently, a few procedures have been done using grafts from donors after cardiac death; these grafts all are done using the in vitro pump before implantation. 