Cell and tissue banking
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Cell and tissue banking · Dec 2021
Case ReportsThe risk of transmission of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) with human heart valve transplantation: evaluation of cardio-vascular tissues from two consecutive heart donors with asymptomatic COVID-19.
We report on two living donors of explanted hearts while receiving heart transplantation that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on the day of donation, although clinically asymptomatic. They underwent heart transplantation for ischaemic and hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, respectively. After evaluation of donor hearts, we cryopreserved and stored two pulmonary valves for clinical application and one aortic valve for research. ⋯ In our opinion, clinical application of the valves from these donors presents negligible risk for coronavirus transmission. Nonetheless, considering the uncertainty regarding the risk of virus transmission with the human tissue transplantation, we would not release in any case the pulmonary valve recovered from the eosinophilic myocarditis heart. In contrast, we may consider the release of the pulmonary valve from the dilated cardiomyopathy heart only for a life-threatening situation when no other similar allograft were available.