Hypothermic Oxygenated Perfusion Versus Static Cold Storage for Marginal Graft

One of the major challenge in the field of organ transplantation is the shortage of donor organs. Many patients waiting for organ transplantation die during the waiting time and many patients wait for organ transplantation many years with a detrimental effect on their quality of life, and increasing morbidity and the costs related to. Effective strategies, which safely extends the donor pool, are therefore advocated. During the last 20 years the two main policies to gain this purpose were the living donation and the utilization of extended donor's criteria (ECD). These donors are supposed to yield a lower outcome than the conventional donors and many research protocols were developed to reduce the preservation injury (PI) and PI-related complications. Static cold storage (SCS) has been the standard technique in clinical practice for liver and kidney preservation using particular solutions (Wisconsin, Custodiol and Celsior) able to prevent cellular swelling. Recently, graft preservation with hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP) is developing, because it seems to improve early graft function due to increased tissue ATP concentrations upon reperfusion and due to the continual flush of the microcirculation which removes waste products. The addition of oxygen during the perfusion represents an innovation in the methods of preservation in approved clinical setting seems to add further improvements of the graft. The present study was designed in order to assess the impact of hypothermic oxygenated perfusion (PIO) of marginal human kidney and liver compared with SCS.