More than 103,000 patients are waiting for an organ transplant in the US alone
Organ donation and transplantation is a surgical process during which a failing organ is replaced with a healthy one. Organ recipients are usually patients who are critically ill in the end stages of organ failure. Undergoing an organ transplant can prolong a person’s life, giving those with a chronic disease a chance to reach the average lifespan.
“Many people need an organ transplant due to a genetic condition such as polycystic kidney disease, cystic fibrosis, or a heart defect. Infections such as hepatitis, physical injuries to organs, and damage due to chronic conditions such as diabetes may also cause a person to require a transplant.” 1
According to preliminary data from United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), which serves as the national Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network under federal contract, 42,887 organ transplants were performed in the US in 2022 – an increase of 3.7% from 2021 and a new annual record.2 Impressive as this number may seem, it accounts for less than half of the people who still need organ transplants.
In the US alone, more than 103,000 people are currently on organ transplant waiting lists and every day 17 of them die waiting for an organ transplant.3
Thousands of donated organs go unused, costing lives
Every year, thousands of donated organs go to waste, particularly lungs, hearts, and livers (see Figure 1). On top of the scarcity of viable organs, not all donated organs are utilized – further exacerbating the problem of availability. Why do they go to waste?
There are two main types of organ donations from recently deceased patients: donation after brain death (DBD) and donation after circulatory death (DCD). Traditionally, donation after brain death is more common than donation after circulatory death, since the quality of organs obtained after circulatory death can, at times, be difficult to assess.4
