Too many donor organs go to waste. Here’s how to get them into the patients who need them By Joshua MezrichMarch 2, 2024

https://www.statnews.com/2024/03/02/donor-organs-kidney-transplant-discard/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=296624390&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9m_2AmEowXw0S3eys9cg4RIRDnBiTWdzlAiH5_yWdIKjVadhtWwyl0wCfX-S2AOX_PeOMtjrkua837iPdWn_eP_Gp4gg&utm_content=296624390&utm_source=hs_email Donor organs are going to waste. What should we do about it? We throw out a lot of organs in this country, including thousands of hearts, lungs, livers, and kidneys every year. In 2021, roughly 20,000 deceased donor kidneys were procured for transplant — and more than 20% were discarded. All the while, the transplant waitlist continues to grow. In a new First Opinion, transplant surgeon Joshua Mezrich explains his own personal experience with this problem and walks through potential solutions, including a strategy that not everyone will be a fan of: a program that offers organs with a high risk of being discarded to transplant centers who opt in, rather than to the next patient on the waitlist. “We need to get these organs to the surgeons and programs willing to use them, for whatever patient they feel will benefit from them. We also need to build accountability, including for equity, into the system,” he writes. Read more on Mezrich’s ideas to get more organs into more people who need them. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27764031/ OPTN/SRTR 2018 Annual Data Report: Deceased Organ Donation https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31898414/ OPTN/SRTR 2021 Annual Data Report: Kidney https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37132350/