Successful Heart Transplants from over 2000 Miles Away.

Recent efforts to expand the donor pool for heart transplants have included wider use of hepatitis-C positive donors 1 Schlendorf K.H. Zalawadiya S. Shah A.S. et al. Expanding heart transplant in the era of direct-acting antiviral therapy for hepatitis C. JAMA Cardiol. 2020; 5: 167-174 Crossref PubMed Scopus (81) Google Scholar and donation after circulatory death. 2 Truby L.K. Casalinova S. Patel C.B. et al. Donation after circulatory death in heart transplantation: history, outcomes, clinical challenges, and opportunities to expand the donor pool. J Card Fail. 2022; 28: 1456-1463 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (15) Google Scholar Another strategy is extending the geographic distance from which centers accept donor hearts. 3 Currie M.E. Shudo Y. Woo Y.J. Successful outcome following orthotopic heart transplantation with a donor half way across the country. Transpl Proc. 2018; 50: 4062-4063 Crossref PubMed Scopus (8) Google Scholar , 4 Guenthart B.A. Krishnan A. Koyano T. et al. Extended static hypothermic preservation in cardiac transplantation: a case report. Transpl Proc. 2021; 53: 2509-2511 Crossref PubMed Scopus (7) Google Scholar Herein we outline the courses of two patients with end-stage heart failure who received allografts from 2050 miles away, with ischemic times over 400 minutes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the longest distance traveled for procurement of adult donor hearts using static hypothermia.