Waiting List Mortality Among Children Listed for Heart Transplantation in the United States

Authors:
Top Cited Papers
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Background— Children listed for heart transplantation face the highest waiting list mortality in solid-organ transplantation medicine. We examined waiting list mortality since the pediatric heart allocation system was revised in 1999 to determine whether the revised allocation system is prioritizing patients optimally and to identify specific high-risk populations that may benefit from emerging pediatric cardiac assist devices. Methods and Results— We conducted a multicenter cohort study using the US Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. All children Conclusions— US waiting list mortality for pediatric heart transplantation remains unacceptably high in the current era. Specific high-risk subgroups can be identified that may benefit from emerging pediatric cardiac assist technologies. The current pediatric heart-allocation system captures medical urgency poorly. Further research is needed to define the optimal organ-allocation system for pediatric heart transplantation.

This publication has 32 references indexed in Scilit: