Worldwide, only about 5,000 people each year get a heart transplant, from a waitlist of 50,000, in part because most donated hearts must be harvested still beating from people who have been declared brain dead. Many more could come from donors whose heartbeat and breathing have stopped, if only those hearts could be better preserved. Now there may be a way. A team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, led by Dr. Aaron Williams, assistant professor of cardiac surgery, has developed a preservative fluid that includes oxygen-rich red blood cells and a muscle relaxant with which the heart can be flushed before being placed in a cooler—immersed in the solution—for transit. The team published the results of early trials in July, and further results in January, which showed the solution could triple the time the heart can survive outside of a body from as little as four hours to as many as 12, potentially increasing the distance a heart can be flown to a recipient. “This technique is allowing us to provide access to hearts to a lot of people who wouldn’t otherwise get them,” says Williams.
