Donor time to death and kidney transplant outcomes in the setting of a 3-hour minimum wait policy

Donor time to death and kidney transplant outcomes in the setting of a 3-hour minimum wait policy
JAMA Network Open; Samuel J. Tingle, MBBS; Nicholas D. H. Chung, MBBS; Abdullah K. Malik, MBBS; Georgios Kourounis, MBBS; Emily Thompson, PhD; Emily K. Glover, MBBS; Jennifer Mehew, PhD; Jennifer Philip, MD; Dale Gardiner, MBBS; Gavin J. Pettigrew, PhD; Chris Callaghan, PhD; Neil S. Sheerin, PhD; Colin H. Wilson, PhD; 11/24
Due to concerns regarding organ viability, most organ donation organizations internationally wait no longer than 1 to 2 hours for potential donation after circulatory death (DCD), possibly underutilizing an important organ source; UK policy mandates a minimum 3-hour wait time. In this cohort study of 7,183 DCD kidney transplant recipients, donor time to death was not associated with short-term or long-term kidney transplant outcomes. This study suggests that organ donation organizations can safely extend the minimum wait time to 3 hours to significantly increase the number of kidneys available for transplant internationally.