New award criteria for heart transplants

New award criteria for heart transplants in preparation

05/10/2014

According to a press report, the Standing Committee on Organ Transplantation at the German Medical Association is preparing to change the award criteria for heart transplants. Accordingly, the chance of success should play a role.

Chance of success should play a role
According to a press report, the Standing Committee on Organ Transplantation is preparing an amendment to the guidelines for the allocation of organs to the German Medical Association. According to the report of the news magazine „Focus“ (41/2014) Patients should receive a new heart in a much earlier stage of the disease. Currently, the criterion of urgency dominates in the public procurement directives. However, as the magazine writes, the chances of success will soon play a role, ie the expected life after surgery.

Consequence of the transplant scandals
The change is said to be a consequence of recent transplant scandals. Only a few days ago it was reported that there had been manipulation at the heart center in Berlin at the organ allocation. Also from various other cities scandals have occurred in recent years due to manipulated organ waiting lists or other abuses. For example, it became known that a doctor in Göttingen should have transplanted a fatty liver into a patient. As a result of the respective scandals becoming known, the number of organ donors in Germany declined significantly.

Models from the USA
A member of the Standing Committee on Organ Transplantation, the Hamburg Cardiac Surgery Professor Hermann Reichenspurner, hopes for better treatment results. Compared to the „Focus“ he said: „In the US, 90 percent of patients still live one year after their heart transplant, in Germany only 80 percent. We want to get to the US level.“ The two valuation models that will be used in the future come from the USA. According to figures from the German Foundation for Organ Transplantation, 313 heart transplants were performed in 24 German hospitals last year. 573 patients were enrolled for transplantation in 2013. (Ad)