RESULTS
Among the 299 donor offers studied (Figure 1), 137 (45.8%) were accepted for transplant and the remainder refused. However, only 59 heart transplants were performed (only 43% of the accepted donors and 19.7% of the total number of donors offered). The gap between accepted donors and not performance of transplant was related to unavailability or inadequacy of logistics for long-distance procurement. Presumably, 78 heart donors (26.4%) that were potentially in good condition were not used because of logistics, a non-medical reason. That particular information certainly had an negative impact on our heart transplant waiting list on the same time frame. Between January 2012 and December 2014, 113 recipients were listed. Among them, 18 (15.9%) died on the waiting list without a heart transplant.
Reasons for donor refusal (Table 2) were non-medical in 129 (53.7%) and medical in 111 (46.3%). Another major non-medical reason was lack of basic complementary tests to determine donor heart’s condition in 36 (15%). Among the medical reasons for donor refusal, the most prevalent ones were severe hemodynamic instability in 46 (19.2%) and ventricular dysfunction determined by echocardiography in 35 (14.6%).