Three-month monitoring report for heart policy following a device recall now available

Published on: Wednesday, December 21, 2022

A new data report contains key measures of adult heart allocation based on an emergency policy change approved by the OPTN Executive Committee on July 11, 2022 and implemented on July 14, 2022.

Early monitoring shows a small percentage of candidates submitted a heart ‘device recall exception’ between July 14, 2022, and Oct. 13, 2022:

• 2. 03% of all adult candidates who spent any time waiting on the waitlist
• 3. 07% adult heart transplant recipients

The report notes several important trends since implementation, including:

• Device recall exception submissions have not increased
• Status 2 patients represent the largest number of candidates that submitted a ‘device recall exception’:
  • 33 adult heart registrations on the waitlist
  • 23 adult heart transplants

At their Dec. 5 board meeting, the OPTN Board of Directors approved these policy changes to be a permanent part of OPTN policy, see the updated policy notice for additional details. The OPTN Heart Transplantation Committee will continue to monitor this policy as data is submitted, and subsequent monitoring reports will be published on the OPTN website on an ongoing basis.