Background: Abrupt temperature shift from hypothermia to normothermia incurred on reperfusion of organ grafts has been delineated as a genuine factor contributing to reperfusion injury and graft dysfunction after transplantation.
Methods: In a first clinical series of 6 patients, cold-stored livers, all allocated by the rescue offer mechanism by Eurotransplant, were subjected to machine-assisted slow controlled oxygenated rewarming (COR) for 90 minutes before engrafting. A historical cohort of 106 patients basically similar in graft (all rescue offer organs) and recipient factors was used for comparison.
Results: The clinical benefit of COR was documented by a significant reduction by approximately 50% in peak serum transaminases after transplantation compared to untreated controls (AST 563.5 vs. 1204 U/L, P = 0.023). After 6 months graft survival was 100% in the COR group and 80.9% in the controls (P = 0.24). Respective patient survival was 100% and 84.7% (P = 0.28). Real-time assessment of glucose concentration in the perfusion solution correlated well with postoperative synthetic graft function (r = 0.78; P < 0.02). All treated recipients had normal liver function after a 6-month follow-up and are well and alive.
Conclusions: This first clinical application suggests that controlled graft rewarming after cold storage is a feasible and safe method in clinical praxis and might become an adjunct in organ preservation.