Paragonix Expands Organ Donor Pool With New NRP-DCD Method

Paragonix Technologies is collaborating with the University of Nebraska Medical Center on a method to advance heart transplantation utilizing DCD (donation after circulatory death) donors. This new method is a combination of proven techniques created to increase the distance DCD donor organs can travel, thus increasing the potential donor pool.
 
The method combines a technique called Normothermic Regional Perfusion (NRP), which utilizes commonly available circulatory support systems to resuscitate the donor organ function before transport, with advanced preservation and transportation in the Paragonix SherpaPak Cardiac Transport System (CTS).  This avoids the use of resource and cost-intensive, experimental technologies for DCD organ recovery which have very limited adoption. Historically, programs that have utilized the NRP technique could only perform these recoveries within the transplant center or very short distances away due to concerns for injury during transport. Nebraska Medical Center will utilize the Paragonix SherpaPak CTS preservation technology to transport these special donor hearts to the recipient in optimized temperature conditions. This NRP-SherpaPak method has the potential to increase the range by which centers can recover DCD organs using NRP.
 
“Our team is one of only a few centers pioneering this new way to help patients through the use of DCD hearts,” said Dr. John Um, surgical director of Cardiac Transplantation at the Nebraska Medical Center. “We are excited to bring this combination of technologies together to give our transplant patients every advantage we can offer during their procedure. We see a promising future for this approach to be implemented in other centers as well.”
 
The Nebraska team has approved this new study through their Institutional Review Board (IRB) and registered the research with the NIH. 
 
Currently, DCD donors are not frequently considered for heart transplantation, because of the potential injury that takes place once the heart stops beating. However, some estimates believe the use of DCD donor hearts could increase heart transplantation by as much as 30 percent. In combining NRP to resuscitate the heart and the Paragonix SherpaPak CTS to securely transport the heart in a delicate condition, donor organs that are unused today can be used to save the lives of transplant patients on the waitlist who desperately need them.
 
“At Paragonix, we recently celebrated transporting 1,000 donor hearts using Paragonix SherpaPak CTS and are incredibly humbled to be able to touch so many lives,” said Lisa Anderson, Ph.D., CEO of Paragonix Technologies. “In our continued support of the science of organ preservation, we are proud to work closely with our transplant partners to advance how we safely bring more organs to more patients in need.”
 
Paragonix Technologies markets organ transportation devices that safeguard organs during the journey between donor and recipient patients. Its devices incorporate clinically proven and medically trusted cold preservation techniques in a suspension system to provide unprecedented physical and thermal protection. Paragonix SherpaPak CTS is the only commercially available U.S. Food and Drug Administration-cleared and CE marked transport device for heart transportation.