The Impact of COVID‐19 on Organ Donation, Procurement and Liver Transplantation in the United States

Merola, Jonathan; Schilsky, Michael L.; Mulligan, David C.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic has had an impact on all facets of our health care system, including life‐saving procedures like organ transplantation. Concerns for potential exposure to the causative severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) have profoundly altered the process of organ donation and recovery that is vital to the execution of organ transplantation. Issues regarding adequate donor evaluation and consent, organ recovery, organ procurement organization (OPO) and donor hospital resources as well as the transplant center’s acceptance of organ offers for their candidates have all required new practice paradigms. Consequently, the ability to treat patients with organ failure, in particular patients with end stage liver disease where no temporizing treatments exist, and to obtain expected excellent outcomes for new liver transplant recipients has been challenged during this time. We summarize some of the negative effects of the current pandemic on organ recovery and liver transplantation as well as offer considerations and strategies for their mitigation that could have a lasting impact on the field even after COVID‐19 has waned.