Guidelines for organ mediation

The Eurotransplant Foundation based in Leiden/Netherlands is responsible for organ mediation. Organ mediation within Germany can take place exclusively through this organisation. For each notified donor organ, possible recipients are identified from the patient data held there. The donor and recipient must have the same blood group. In addition, the height and/or weight of recipient and donor should match to some extent. Differences between 10 and 20 percent are acceptable in individual cases. This depends on various medical aspects (urgency of transplantation, magnitude of pulmonary vascular resistance, previous surgery).

A preliminary decision on whether an appropriate donor matches the corresponding recipient must be made by the experienced doctors at the transplant centre where the heart transplant will be performed, on the basis of the details that are communicated by phone. The final decision on accepting a donor organ is made by the organ harvesting team after checking all the available donor details (e.g. laboratory test results, echocardiography etc), inspecting the heart and palpating (feeling) the coronary arteries. If the donor organ is adequate and the recipient is fit for transplantation at the time of organ mediation, the organ is accepted for this patient. If the recipient has a contraindication for the planned surgery, Eurotransplant offers the organ to the next suitable patient on the waiting list.