Heart transplants from severely obese donors are safe, research claims

September 16, 2020  22:00

Patients who received heart transplants from severely obese donors had the same short-term outcomes and long-term survival rates as those who received hearts from non-obese donors. Such findings were published in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation: Heart Failure, US News reported.

"These findings were somewhat surprising because the severely obese donors did tend to have more medical problems, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, than the non-obese donors," said study author Dr. Leora Yarboro. She's an associate professor of surgery at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville.

The team analyzed the outcomes of 26,000 heart transplants in the US from 2003 to 2017. Nearly 3.5% of the donors were severely obese.

"There were no significant differences in short-term outcomes, one-year survival rates, or long-term death rates between patients who received a heart from a severely obese donor and those who received a heart from a non-obese donor, the findings showed," the agency added.

Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and Twitter


 
  • Video
 
 
  • Event calendar
 
 
  • Archive