Board approves requirements to enhance patient safety, improve access

Published on: Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Atlanta - The OPTN/UNOS Board of Directors, at its semi-annual meeting Nov. 14 and 15, approved a series of requirements to enhance patient safety in the use of organs with uncommon blood subtypes. Everyone has a blood type of a major group (A, B, O or AB). Except for those with blood type O, potential donors have certain blood antibodies preventing them from donating organs successfully to recipients of other specific blood types. In some instances, however, potential donors have a blood subtype that would allow successful transplantation to recipients of a blood group generally considered incompatible (most commonly from group A donors to group O recipients).

"The new policies and bylaws will facilitate safe transplants of blood subtypes, which often benefit recipients with blood types who otherwise may wait longer for organ offers," said OPTN/UNOS President John Lake, M.D. "To minimize the risk of misidentifying a subtype and performing an incompatible transplant, we've added new procedures for verifying and communicating the donor's subtype." The new requirements include additional testing to identify the subtype and double verification of the test results by transplant professionals.

The Board also adopted new requirements for labeling and storage of blood vessels recovered with donated organs, but which may be used in later surgical procedures. These are intended to minimize the possibility of donor disease transmission through use of these vessels. The new requirements include additional specifications for labeling vessel containers, as well as prohibition on storing vessels for later use from donors with positive test results for hepatitis C antibody and/or hepatitis B surface antigen.

In other action, the Board approved a change to the sequence of allocating livers to provide broader access to adult candidates needing a combined liver and intestinal organ transplant. There are few adult candidates needing this organ combination, but their risk of dying awaiting a transplant is higher than many candidates needing a liver transplant alone. Under the new policy, combined liver-intestinal organ candidates nationwide would be considered for organ offers before liver-only candidates at a local or regional level with a MELD/PELD score of 28 or lower.