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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Louise Kenny, Professor John Dark, Mohamed Nassar, Dr Emma Simpson
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Copyright © 2025 Kenny, Armstrong, Berman, Brierley, Crossland, Dark, Gardiner, Large, Manas, Nassar, Shaw and Simpson.Heart transplant for adults following Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) is well established in many parts of the world, including the United Kingdom (UK). Small child DCD hearts have now been recovered in the UK and internationally utilising novel technologies. Despite these recent advances, extension of this practice to pediatric cardiac transplantation has been slow and difficult despite the severe shortage of donors for children leading to a high number of deaths annually of children waiting for heart transplant. This is in direct contrast with the thriving UK programme of adult DCD heart transplant and pediatric DCD donation for non-cardiac organs. There has been insufficient action in addressing this inequality thus far. Barriers to development of a pediatric cardiac DCD programme are multifaceted: ethical concerns, technological paucity, financial and logistical hurdles. We describe the background, live issues, current developments and how we are driving resources toward a sustainable DCD programme for small children in the UK to provide valuable insights to other countries of the elements and principles at play. This is a call to responsible bodies to take urgent and achievable actions to establish an equitable paediatric DCD cardiac programme for donors, recipients and their families.
Author(s): Kenny LA, Armstrong L, Berman M, Brierley J, Crossland D, Dark J, Gardiner D, Large SR, Manas D, Nassar M, Shaw D, Simpson E
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: Transplant International
Year: 2025
Volume: 38
Print publication date: 01/02/2025
Online publication date: 14/02/2025
Acceptance date: 23/01/2025
ISSN (print): 0934-0874
ISSN (electronic): 1432-2277
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
URL: https://doi.org/10.3389/ti.2025.13801
DOI: 10.3389/ti.2025.13801
PubMed id: 40026599
