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Baylor Scott & White Health transplant teams successfully utilize organs from hepatitis C-positive donors

The opioid epidemic has caused the incidence of acute hepatitis C (HCV) in the United States to triple over the last several years. More than 5 million people in the nation carry the virus. Because many of these people are undiagnosed, especially in high-risk populations, many organs from HCV-positive donors are still being procured.

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Innovative heart transplant research using hepatitis C-positive donors

It all started with one very sick patient. Transplant cardiologists Shelley Hall, MD, and Robert Gottlieb, MD, PhD, and cardiothoracic surgeon Gonzo Gonzalez-Stawinski, MD, with Baylor University Medical Center, part of Baylor Scott & White Health, faced a difficult situation. A heart transplant was needed for a patient with biventricular heart failure and multiple comorbidities, but her condition made her a poor candidate for bridging mechanical support therapy, like a ventricular assist device (VAD). Even though the Heart Transplant Program in the Baylor Annette C. and Harold C. Simmons Transplant Institute at Baylor University Medical Center is nationally recognized for short donor organ wait times, it was not clear if a suitable donor heart would appear before the patient succumbed to the disease.

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