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Ashish Shah

Ashish Shah

Chair, Department of Cardiac Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Appears in 1 story

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New heart preservation methods expand who can donate and how far organs can travel

New Capabilities

Leads one of the nation's highest-volume heart transplant programs

For decades, a donated heart had to reach its recipient within four hours, and only hearts from brain-dead donors qualified. Both constraints are now falling. A Vanderbilt University team has published results in the Journal of the American Medical Association showing that their REUP technique—a flush of oxygenated blood, del Nido cardioplegia solution, and cardioprotective additives—can preserve a heart from a donor whose heart has stopped beating for up to eight hours, with outcomes matching or exceeding existing methods at roughly $2,000 per transplant instead of $65,000.

Updated Yesterday