Overview

• Machine perfusion technology now allows donor hearts to remain viable for up to eight to ten hours, surpassing the traditional six-hour limit of cold storage.
• St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney has used this technology since 2014 and now employs it in over half of its heart transplants, particularly for circulatory-death donor hearts.
• The extended preservation window has removed time constraints for cross-country heart transport, enabling transplants between distant Australian cities like Perth and Sydney.
• Research confirms that heart transplants using machine perfusion achieve outcomes comparable to those using traditional methods, maintaining primary graft function effectively.
• The technology opens possibilities for international organ sharing, with Australia already collaborating with New Zealand and exploring retrieval opportunities in the Pacific Islands and Asia.