The risk of early heart failure after heart transplantation is lower if the donor heart is stored in a so-called heart-in-a-box instead of in the usual cooler with ice. This is according to a study where researchers at the University of Gothenburg are now presenting the results. The established way of storing donated hearts before transplantation is to keep them at four degrees in potassium solution in a cooler with ice.
Handling is a race against time, where matching, transportation and surgery need to happen within four hours to avoid increasing the risk of complications for the recipient. Research has shown that transport times of up to nine hours are no longer an obstacle if hypothermic oxygenated machine perfusion (HOPE) or a "heart-in-a-box" is used instead of static cold storage. In the box, the heart is kept at eight degrees and is oxygenated using a pump, a set of tubes, a reservoir and a fluid that is circulated through the resting heart while waiting for the transplantation.
The aim of the current study, published in The Lancet , was to compare the methods, "heart-in-the-box" and cooler, in terms of safety and health outcomes of heart recipients in the first 30 days after transplantation. The study is the first so-called randomized controlled study of its kind. Eight countries in Europe The study included 204 adult patients registered for heart transplantation at fifteen different clinics in eight European countries.
Half of the participants were randomly assigned .