Progression of Liver Transplant Outcomes From Donors After Circulatory Death in the United States: A 23-Year…

Cohort studyExperimental and clinical transplantation : official journal of the Middle East Society for Organ Transplantation· Jun 2026

Progression of Liver Transplant Outcomes From Donors After Circulatory Death in the United States: A 23-Year Comparative Analysis With Donors After Brain Death.

Abolfazl Jamshidi, Suhani Kunam, Tara Patale … Reza Saidi

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Neurocritical CareCohort studyQ3IF 0.7

Donation-after-cardiac-death liver transplants more than doubled in the U.S. since 2000.

Progression of Liver Transplant Outcomes From Donors After Circulatory Death in the United States: A 23-Year Comparative Analysis With Donors After Brain Death.

Abolfazl Jamshidi … Reza Saidi

Experimental and clinical transplantation · Jun 2026

Purpose

We evaluated outcomes of liver transplant from donors after cardiac death versus transplants from donors after brain death, assessing trends over time.

Methods

Using the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, we retrospectively analyzed liver transplants in the United States from January 2000 through May 2023.

n = 516 patients

Results

8.5%

Share of liver transplants from cardiac-death donors rose from 4% to 8.5% over 23 years.

n = 516 patients

More results

For both time periods, liver transplant recipients from donors after cardiac death had lower Model for End-Stage Liver Disease scores than recipients from donors after brain death (18.61 ± 8.39 vs 20.32 ± 8.91 in 2000-2010 {P < .001 } and 17.31 ± 7.24 vs 22.49 ± 10.45 in 2011-2023 {P < .001 } ).

More results

Compared with transplants with donors after cardiac death, transplants with donors after brain death had higher 5 -year graft survival (72.36 % vs 68.56 % in 2000-2010 {P < .001 }; 80.22 % vs 78.06 % in 2011 -2023 {P = .021 } ) and patient survival rates (72.09 % vs 68.56 % in 2000 -2010 {P < .001 }; 79.65 % vs 77.32 % in 2011 -2023 {P = .016 } ).

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Conclusion

Outcomes of liver transplants from donations after cardiac death have significantly improved, potentially partly as a result of allocation of donation after cardiac death livers to patients with lower Model for End -Stage Liver Disease scores in recent years.