OPTN Required SARS-CoV-2 Lower Respiratory Testing for Lung Donors: Early Impact on Patient Safety and Organ Utilization

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The OPTN implemented emergency policy on 5/27/21 requiring lower respiratory testing (LRT) by nucleic acid test (NAT) for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) for all potential deceased lung donors. Our objective was to assess the policy's impact on organ utilization and patient safety. Method(s) OPTN data were analyzed for LRT information reported in discrete data fields or attachments in DonorNet for deceased lung donors recovered 5/27/21- 10/31/21. We used natural language processing to identify donor attachments with terminology related to COVID-19 (e.g., "COVID", "SARS-COV-2") and LRT (e.g., "BAL", "tracheal aspirate") in the attachment filename or description. Result(s) In the first 5 months since implementation, lungs were transplanted from 1037 donors (963 (92.9%) non-DCD, 74 (7.1%) DCD) (Figure). Lung utilization decreased slightly from pre- to post-policy for both non-DCD and DCD donors (overall 17.7% vs 16.2%;non-DCD 22.9% vs 21.7%;DCD 5.1% vs 3.8%). 99.8% (N=1035/1037) of transplanted lung donors had LRT;the majority (99.2%) had LRT results reported in DonorNet on/before day of lung transplant. There have been no reported potential donor-derived SARS-CoV-2 transmissions to lung recipients since implementation. 58 donors had a positive LRT (LRT+), including 27 (46.6%) with a negative upper respiratory test. Lungs were not transplanted from 57/58 LRT+ donors;1 LRT+ donor was believed to be a false positive based on confirmatory test results and had lungs transplanted. Non-lung organs were recovered and transplanted from LRT+ donors without evidence of disease transmission (Table). While the kidney discard rate was higher for LRT+ donors relative to donors without LRT+ (30.2% vs 24.8%), liver discards were lower (5.6% vs 9.9%), and heart utilization was similar (27.6% vs 28.0%). Conclusion(s) Early results suggest that the LRT policy has minimized the risk of donor-derived COVID-19 transmission to lung recipients with minimal impact on lung utilization and allowing transplantation of non-lung organs from LRT+ donors. (Figure Presented).