Breaking barriers in cardiac donation after circulatory death

Background: Heart transplant from controlled donation after circulatory death (cDCD) is an emerging strategy that is rapidly expanding and may help increase the heart donor pool. Materials and Methods: The use of thoracoabdominal normothermic regional perfusion (TANRP) with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation device has allowed to perform cardiac transplantation after cDCD. Several experiences have been carried out in recent years, however the maximum cold ischemia time is still unknown. We present a successful case of heart transplantation using a graft from cDCD from another hospital with 201 minutes of cold ischemia time, the longest published in Europe. Discussion and conclusion: Heart transplant from cDCD could be a good alternative to brain dead donation. This experience suggests than nonlocal cardiac donation in controlled asystole could tolerate long periods of cold ischemia time and break the main barriers in cardiac donation after circulatory death.