Establish Eligibility Criteria and Safety Net for Heart-Kidney and Lung-Kidney Allocation

At a glance

Background

The Ad Hoc Multi-Organ Transplantation Committee (MOT) seeks to establish policies for heart-kidney and lung-kidney allocation. This proposal would establish criteria to make heart-kidney and lung-kidney patients eligible for a multi-organ transplant. The eligibility is based on the patient’s kidney function.

This proposal also will create criteria for prioritizing patients who previously received either a heart or lung transplant, and now need a kidney transplant. The prioritization is referred to as a “safety net” for these patients. The proposed eligibility criteria and safety net prioritization are intended to improve equity in access to transplant for both multi-organ and single-organ patients.

Supporting media

Presentation

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Proposed changes

• Create criteria for patients who want to receive simultaneous kidney and lung transplants or simultaneous kidney and heart transplants.
• Create criteria to give patients some additional priority to receive a kidney after the patient has received either a heart or lung transplant.

Anticipated impact

• What it's expected to do
  • Create eligibility criteria for heart-kidney patients based on the patient’s current kidney function.
  • Create eligibility criteria for lung-kidney patients based on the patient’s current kidney function.
  • Create “safety net” criteria to prioritize patients for a kidney transplant who are experiencing kidney failure after they have received either a heart alone or lung alone transplant.
• What it won't do
  • This will not change existing eligibility criteria and safety net priority for simultaneous liver-kidney (SLK) transplantation.
  • This will not change current criteria for how a patient is prioritized for a kidney, heart, or lung transplant without an additional organ.

Terms to know

• Multi-organ candidate: a patient who needs to receive more than one organ transplant at one time
• Safety-net criteria: a section of policy that allows a patient to receive priority in certain situations

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