CLINICAL-SIGNIFICANCE OF WEIGHT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DONOR AND RECIPIENT IN HEART-TRANSPLANTATION

A standard and important criterion for donor acceptance is to match th e donor's body weight to within 20 % of the recipient's body weight. H owever, to meet the increasing demand of patients who need heart trans plantation, frequently a heart that is below the standard criteria for donation is accepted. Of the 200 consecutive patients who underwent h eart transplantation at the University of Arizona, 27 patients receive d a heart from a smaller donor with a weight difference of more than 3 0 % (range 30 % to 46 %). The early mortality and late survival of the se 27 patients were not different when compared with those of the pati ents who received transplants from donors with a weight difference of less than 30 %. The probability of freedom from rejection and infectio n and postoperative ejection fraction were also similar between the tw o groups. Therefore, we believe that the widely accepted donor-recipie nt weight-match criterion of 20 % can be safely extended.