The opioid epidemic in the United States has worsened in recent years, causing an unexpected surge of heart transplant donors who died of overdose. Experts in the transplantation field are constantly seeking new ways to address the great need for more organ donors, and are examining how this increase of overdose deaths has impacted the transplant community.
A study led by , surgical director of heart transplantation at 嘿嘿视频 Transplant Institute and professor in the , indicates that hearts from donors who died of overdose perform just as well as other hearts. 鈥淭hese are good organs and they should be used for transplantation, and anyone who receives an offer for a heart from one of these types of donors, they need to think hard before rejecting it because it鈥檚 a 鈥榟igh-risk鈥 donor,鈥 Dr. Moazami tells TCTMD. Dr. Moazami says he has no concerns unique to using hearts from donors who died of overdose.
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