Staged Kidney Transplantation During Combined Heart/Kidney Transplantation

Combined heart and kidney transplantation (H/KTx) is the treatment of choice for patients with concomitant heart failure and chronic- or end-stage kidney disease. H/KTx presents a logistical challenge, often involving multiple surgical teams and requiring extended operative time to perform both heart and kidney transplants. Additionally, during heart transplantation, recipients require anticoagulation and multiple inotropes and vasopressors to support heart function early after implantation. While necessary, these may be detrimental to the newly implanted kidney allograft, potentially contributing to vasoconstriction, bleeding, hypotension, and worsening ischemia-reperfusion injury. Unfortunately, delaying implantation leads to extended cold ischemic time which also may be detrimental to the graft. Delayed graft function (DGF) of the kidney allograft is defined as the need for dialysis in the first seven days after transplantation and has been shown to be an important risk factor for graft loss following H/KTx. Ultimately, H/KTx requires balancing recipient stability with cold ischemic time to optimize kidney graft function. New perfusion technology adds oxygenation to the perfusate of the kidney allograft, thereby resuscitating the organ during preservation and reducing ischemia-reperfusion injury. This study seeks to evaluate the safety and efficacy of planned delayed implantation to allow for improved recipient stability and coagulopathy, while using hypothermic oxygenated machine perfusion (HOPE) for kidney preservation.