Utilization of DCD NRP liver grafts: A multicenter study of opportunities for improvement in organ acceptance

Normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) adoption for donation after circulatory death (DCD) liver transplantation in the US has been growing, but there remains a higher rate of non-utilization of NRP DCD liver grafts as compared to donation after brain death liver grafts. Six transplant centers and one organ procurement organization (OPO) with substantial NRP liver procurement experience performed retrospective reviews of all NRP procurement attempts from September 1, 2021 until March 1, 2024, identifying opportunities for utilization. Five of the 6 transplant centers had prospectively collected data on all accepted livers with NRP intent. The transplant center intention to utilize DCD donors included 329 livers accepted for transplantation prior to withdrawal, 252 (76.6%) potential donors expired within the hospital timeframe for donation, and 168 (66.7%) livers were transplanted. Fifty-seven opportunities for utilization were identified by transplant centers plus 11 from the OPO: most were due to exceeding a functional warm ischemic time limit (n=26), other reasons (n=17) and functional assessment (n=16). The lessons learned by centers in this study provide guidance for newer NRP centers and for OPOs in identifying opportunities for utilization of NRP DCD grafts that have historically been declined.